Biomimetic Synthetic Grafts for Bone Regeneration and Epithelial Healing

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Millions of patients worldwide suffer from severe injuries involving skin and skeleton due to accidents, cancer, infection or birth defects. These conditions have devastating impact on the quality of life of the patients, are often life-threatening, and result in high costs to healthcare agencies. Currently, reconstruction of body parts that include skin and bone (i.e. limbs, face) has been made possible through complex surgical transplantation of living tissues from fresh cadavers. Although this technique has shown great potential, transplantation of living organs requires strong immunosuppressive therapies that reduce considerably the life expectancy of the patients. Currently there are no artificial materials designed to regenerate injuries involving both bone and skin. Dr. Tamimi's research program aims at developing synthetic materials that would eliminate the need for cadaver grafts. In order to prepare such materials, Dr Tamimi will investigate how the chemical composition of bone influences its biological behaviour. Bone mineral is mainly composed of calcium and phosphate, however, its also includes low concentrations of a wide range of many other elements known as trace elements. The role of trace elements in bone is currently not clear and inconclusive; however, some studies indicate that they may have useful effects on bone regeneration. Synthetic materials used for bone regeneration are made of simple components that often ignore the potential relevance of these trace elements. Accordingly, in the proposed 5-year discover grant application Dr Tamimi will investigate: i)the role of trace elements in bone and identify which elements may have a positive effect on bone formation (Objective 1); ii) the effect of adding trace elements to synthetic materials for bone regeneration (Objective 2); and iii) the combination of the newly developed bone regeneration biomaterials with synthetic membranes for skin healing resulting in compound materials suitable for reconstruction of complex injuries involving skin and bone (Objective 3).