A computational and experimental framework for tissue engineering scaffold design and characterisation

组织工程支架设计和表征的计算和实验框架

• 批准号: 2573181
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Swansea University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2573181
• 关键词: computational; experimental; framework; tissue; engineering

Mechanobiology research is for understanding the role of mechanics in cell physiology and pathology. It will have implications for studying cellular physiology and pathology and to guide the strategy for regenerating both the structural and functional features of tissue (such as bone / cartilage). In mechanobiological studies in vitro, a dynamic micro-mechanical environment is usually applied to cells via bioreactors. Porous scaffolds are commonly used for housing the cells in a three-dimensional (3D) culturing environment. Such scaffolds usually have different pore geometries (e.g. with different pore shapes, pore dimensions and porosities). These pore geometries can affect the internal micro-mechanical environment that the cells experience when loaded in the bioreactor. Therefore, to adjust the applied micro-mechanical environment on cells, researchers can tune either the applied load and/or the design of the scaffold pore geometries. To benefit the tissue engineering / organoids fields for cellular mechanobiology research by optimising the mechanical stimulation on cells within scaffolds, this PhD project aims to develop a computational and experimental framework for designing tissue engineering scaffold geometry and characterising its influence on the internal micro-mechanical environment. To carry out the PhD project, computer-aided design / computer-aided engineering (CAD/CAE) approach will be used for creating scaffold geometries and simulating the internal micro-mechanical environment. In addition, experimental measurement will be setup for validating the simulation results by measuring the flow within scaffolds, for example. Afterwards, many simulations will be run on various scaffold geometries to create a "big data". Finally, a data-driven optimisation technique will be used for processing the "big data" to build up a automatic design framework. This framework is expected to be applied to scaffold geometric design for various tissue engineering applications (e.g. bone, cartilage).

力学生物学研究是为了了解力学在细胞生理学和病理学中的作用。这将对研究细胞生理学和病理学以及指导组织(如骨/软骨)的结构和功能特征的再生策略具有重要意义。在体外的力学生物学研究中，通常通过生物反应器将动态的微机械环境应用于细胞。多孔支架通常用于在三维(3D)培养环境中容纳细胞。这种支架通常具有不同的孔几何形状(例如，具有不同的孔形状、孔尺寸和孔隙率)。这些孔的几何形状会影响细胞在生物反应器中加载时所经历的内部微机械环境。因此，为了调整细胞上的应用微机械环境，研究人员可以调整应用负载和/或支架孔几何形状的设计。为了通过优化对支架内细胞的机械刺激，使组织工程/类有机物领域在细胞力学生物学研究中受益，本博士项目旨在开发一个计算和实验框架，用于设计组织工程支架的几何形状，并表征其对内部微机械环境的影响。为了开展博士项目，将使用计算机辅助设计/计算机辅助工程(CAD/CAE)方法来创建支架几何形状和模拟内部微观机械环境。此外，还将设置实验测量，例如通过测量脚手架内的流动来验证模拟结果。之后，将在不同的脚手架几何形状上运行许多模拟，以创建“大数据”。最后，将使用数据驱动的优化技术来处理大数据，以建立自动设计框架。该框架有望应用于各种组织工程应用(如骨、软骨)的支架几何设计。