Prototyping and Validation of Intervertebral Disc Bioreactors with Complex Loading Capacities

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Low back pain (LBP) is tiredness, discomfort or pain in the low back, which leads to the medical expenditure of $12 billion annually in Canada. Clinical evidence has linked LBP with intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration that often requires surgical intervention due to the lack of healing capacity of native IVD. There are a variety of implantable biomaterials under development for IVD repair. However, the development has been long bottlenecked by the lack of IVD bioreactors capable of reproducing the in vivo conditions in a laboratory setting. This project is focused on design, fabrication, and validation of a novel bioreactor for IVD studies. Such a device is designed to combine the capacity of compression, bending and torsion loading simultaneously, while is fully compatible with whole organ culture ex vivo. This project would directly address a critical need of a Canadian company for the development and validation of hydrogel implants for IVD repair. The device can enable high-throughput safety and efficacy evaluation of IVD implants, and mitigate the need of lengthy and expensive animal experiments. This project will address the need of the company, set the foundation for its follow-up collaboration with the PI, and ultimately help improve the healthcare of millions of patients living with IVD diseases.