Regenerative biomaterial patches for failing hearts

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Regenerative medicine has been established as a powerful approach to repair and restore tissue function and has facilitated the development of a new era of medical procedures and healthcare technologies including the delivery of stem cells. However, many of these technologies have failed to reach the clinic due to poor methods of cell delivery which lead to rapid cell death or poor engraftment with the target tissues intended for repair. To improve clinical outcomes, biomaterials have been developed with the aim to control cell delivery in sustained and localised manner. However, biomaterials currently under investigation are not able to adhere to target tissues and rely on sutures to hold them in place which induces further tissue damage and inflammation. Furthermore, a mechanical demanding environment such as beating heart requires the biomaterial to be robust and able to conform to the dynamic nature of the tissue. For example, myocardial infarction can lead to the death of 1 billion cardiomyoctes and cell-delivery to infarcted hearts is an emerging therapy to heal the diseased cardiac tissue. However, the efficacy of these treatments has been limited due to the lack of advanced cell-delivery methods.The overall goal of this research is to improve clinical outcomes associated with regenerative cell-based therapies by using advanced biomaterials as cell-delivery vehicles. This project aims to provide advanced biomaterials for regenerative medicine by delivering cardiac cells to diseased tissue via adhesive hydrogel patches. Such an approach would provide opportunities and have significant impact in fields such as biomaterials, regenerative medicine, drug delivery, medical devices and tissue engineering.The specific biomaterials that will be developed to deliver cells are hydrogels which are high-water content swollen gels. Hydrogels are a highly desirable class of materials to encapsulate cells as they can be synthesised to mimic natural tissues which increases the biocompatibility of these systems. Furthermore, the hydrogels can provide information to the encapsulated cells to encourage tissue-specific cell differentiation prior to delivery to the target diseased tissue.The hydrogels developed in this research are highly stretchable, so they can be deployed in physical demanding environments, and tissue adhesive which allows the encapsulated cells to closely interface with the tissue surface and be delivered more efficiently.The outcomes of this research would open up new opportunities for regenerative medicine as these hydrogels could significantly increase the efficiency of cell-based therapies, improve our treatment methods and understanding of diseased tissues and introduce innovative cell-laden biomaterials to the clinic as regenerative medical devices.