Creating 3D biomimetic collagen extra-cellular matrices for cell biology and tissue engineering applications

本项目旨在支持一名具有材料/物理/化学/工程背景的博士后研究助理（PDRA）进入组织工程小组，研究用于软骨和骨组织修复的3D仿生胶原纳米纤维支架的制造和体外生物学特性。希望苏博博士的生物材料工程小组和Anthony Hollander教授的组织工程小组能透过这项学科跳跃奖，促进长期合作，并在为期12个月的试点研究中获得跨学科的联合资助。提出的研究将解决众所周知的挑战，即通过采用微流体辅助共静电纺丝技术制造具有天然胶原结构机械特性的胶原基质。挑战出现在适应静电纺丝技术以适应生物材料，以及学习如何为组织工程应用生成3D仿生结构。布里斯托尔大学这两个小组之间的合作将汇集必要的互补专业知识，从而在这一领域的研究中取得阶段性的改变。

This project is intended to support a post-doctoral research assistant (PDRA) with materials/physics/chemistry/engineering background to hop to a tissue engineering group to investigate the fabrication and in vitro biological characterisation of 3D biomimetic collagen nanofibrous scaffolds for cartilage and bone tissue repair. It is hoped that long term collaboration between the Biomaterials Engineering Group of Dr Bo Su and the Tissue Engineering group of Professor Anthony Hollander will be fostered through this discipline hopping award and a joint interdisciplinary grant could result from the 12-month pilot study. The proposed study will address the well-recognised challenges of manufacturing collagen matrices with the mechanical properties of natural collagen structures by adapting microfluidic assisted co-electrospinning technique. The challenges arise in adapting electrospinning technique to accommodate biological materials, and learning how 3D biomimetic structures can be generated for tissue engineering application. Partnership between these two groups at the University of Bristol will bring together the complementary expertise necessary to make a step-change in research in this area.