Integrating advanced reporter nanomaterials and molecules to indicate the 'health' of biomedical materials during manufacture

整合先进的报告纳米材料和分子以指示生物医学材料在制造过程中的“健康”状况

• 批准号: 2434696
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2434696
• 关键词: Integrating; advanced; reporter; nanomaterials; molecules

With the advances in biomedical engineering, the possibility of personalised medical treatment such as customized regenerative tissue scaffolds is fast becoming a reality. This technology is enabled via distributed manufacturing processes such as 3D bioprinting. Hydrogels are the material of choice for this application due to their mechanical properties and biological compatibility. Although bioprinting of hydrogels has been proven feasible, the question remains, what happens to the underlying gel structure and mechanical performance following the high shear process of 3D printing?It is known that mechanical shear forces can be used to transfer energy to chemical bonds and drive chemical reactions. Force sensitive species known as mechanophores undergo controlled chemical transformation following application of a threshold force.This project aims to incorporate mechanophores within hydrogel formulations for tissue scaffolds to act as reporter species to indicate the health of the gel following various manufacturing processes. The proposed PhD project will investigate the scale of the forces experienced during various manufacturing processes and identify the readouts and analytical techniques feasible with these biologically active materials. The project will use world leading microscopy techniques available within the Department to link the observed chemical readouts with structural changes within the hydrogel at various length scales.This is an interdisciplinary project combining the fields of chemistry and manufacturing engineering developing abilities in hydrogel synthesis and formulation, optical imaging and analytical chemistry. The final goal of the project is to understand the effect of mechanical forces produced during manufacturing on these biomedical materials to enable the scale-up and concurrent distributed manufacturing of tissue scaffolds.

随着生物医学工程的进步，个性化医疗的可能性，如定制的再生组织支架正在迅速成为现实。这项技术是通过分布式制造过程实现的，如3D生物打印。由于其机械性能和生物相容性，水凝胶是该应用的首选材料。虽然水凝胶的生物打印已被证明是可行的，但问题仍然存在，在3D打印的高剪切过程之后，底层凝胶结构和机械性能会发生什么变化？已知机械剪切力可用于将能量转移到化学键并驱动化学反应。力敏感的物种被称为mechanophores进行受控的化学转化后，应用的阈值力。本项目的目的是将mechanophores在水凝胶配方的组织支架作为报告物种，以指示健康的凝胶后，各种制造过程。拟议的博士项目将调查在各种制造过程中所经历的力的规模，并确定这些生物活性材料的读数和可行的分析技术。该项目将使用世界领先的显微镜技术，将观察到的化学读数与水凝胶内不同长度尺度的结构变化联系起来。这是一个跨学科的项目，结合了化学和制造工程领域，开发了水凝胶合成和配方，光学成像和分析化学方面的能力。该项目的最终目标是了解制造过程中产生的机械力对这些生物医学材料的影响，以实现组织支架的规模化和并行分布式制造。