Structure-property relationships in ionically substituted bioactive glasses.

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A philosophy: rather than attempting to recreate the complexity of living tissues ex vivo, synthetic materials can be formulated that offer mechanical integrity whilst interacting with cells to unlock the body's inherent ability to self-repair. The Clinical Materials Group (CMG) at Ryerson University, under the leadership of Towler, is designing glass-based materials with properties tailored by ionic incorporation in order to engage this philosophy. The program will build on existing published (156 peer-reviewed papers) and patented (six in total; two in the relevant space) research in Towler's laboratory by recruiting students to fulfil four objectives: A.Advance knowledge. The program will expand the fundamental understanding of the role that specific ionic dopants, in quantifiable amounts, have on the physical, mechanical and in-vitro biological properties of ionomeric glasses and cementitious materials manufactured from them. The program will have three streams: 1. Synthesis of glasses and glass polyalkenoate cements (GPCs) formulated to be sufficiently viscous for load bearing. 2. Incorporation of Gallium ions into glasses by sol-gel electro-spinning. 3. Development of a resorbable GPC. B.Inspire the next generation. Highly qualified personnel (HQP) will be trained for the academic, industrial and regulatory industries. Their skills will be honed by placements with Towler's academic, clinical and industrial collaborators across Canada. C.Confirm the value of R&D investment. Advancements made through the program will result in IP for commercial exploitation. The work will interest Canadian start-ups, small to medium enterprises (SME) and multinational industry. Towler has both licensed (Opus-Fil+, DS&D, UK) and spun-off (Crescent Ops, London, UK) technology. D.Increase visibility of research. Towler will continue to publish extensively in the literature, at the least maintaining his existing rate (~15 papers, annually) and ensuring HQP disseminate their work at leading scientific conferences. In his first five years in Canada (2013-2018), Towler secured over C$2.6m from NSERC and CIHR to graduate eight PhD and four MASc students and mentor four PDFs; the group currently has 11 graduate students and three PDFs; all funded by federal grants with a 50:50 gender balance between men and women. New HQP will be recruited from the materials, biology and engineering fields; the remit being to train them in areas of strategic interest to Canada.  Discovery deliverables may be exploited through future NSERC I2I or Collaborative Research & Development (CRD) or NSERC/CIHR Collaborative Health Research Project (CHRP) grants and, with follow-on accreditation activities, could improve orthopedic procedures leading to shorter hospital stays and reduced healthcare costs.