EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

The design freedoms of 3D printing are particularly attractive for those who seek regenerative medicine based therapeutic interventions. Using 3D printing, it is possible to design and manufacture highly personalised, tailored and complex structures that can fit the needs of a patient. However, there are two problems – how do we design these structures and how do we find materials that have...

Successful results in tissue engineering are indeed dependent upon the interaction between the medical device and the biological environment. There are many ways to optimize this interaction and our strategy is to focus on the polymer properties in combination with the production process and the final design. We start by designing the polymer microstructure, synthesis of a polymer with...

Introduction

Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) has been the subject of extensive research due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability and excellent rheological and mechanical properties. Especially its suitability for extrusion-based 3D-printing in order to obtain patient-specific-implants has attracted significant attention. However, its application in light-based 3D-printing techniques remains...

Additive manufacturing technologies offer the possibility to provide tailor-made implants for tissue regeneration approaches.[[1][1]] Depending on the techniques, different polymeric materials with highly specialized properties are needed.
One very promising technique is stereolithography, demanding photopolymers, polymers that are formed from liquid formulations by exposure with...

The socioeconomic cost of bone fractures in Europe is growing in correlation with the ageing population and the osteoporosis-related fractures. State-of-the-art metal plates and screws can be too rigid and invasive when targeting fractures repair on thin and fragile bone. The use of adhesives for fracture fixation can potentially provide a solution for such surgical procedures toward more...

Wound healing of degenerated cartilage tissues, is a complex and challenging biological process.[1] To support the healing process, a potential synthetic material has to fulfill requirements such as biocompatibility and biodegradability. In recent years, hydrogels gained increased interest in tissue regeneration being biocompatible and encouraging the proliferation of specific cell types.[2]...

Introduction 3D Bioprinting provides the ability to produce engineered tissues with desired macroscopic shapes, chemical and biological gradients. However, the field is still lacking methods to reproduce microscopic matrix architecture. In this study we introduce a technique to control distribution and orientation of fibrillar collagen (col) embedded within a hyaluronan (HA) bioink matrix...

Adherent cell manufacturing is hindered by the necessity to use solid substrates or hydrogels for their culture and expansion. Such materials and platforms are relatively difficult to scale up and parallelise. In contrast, liquid-liquid technologies and microdroplet platforms have been applied very successfully in the field of Chemical Engineering for the scale up of synthesis and purification...

Introduction:
Current approaches in the field of tissue engineering are represented by either scaffold-based or scaffold-free[1]. The work here represents an emerging third option which is possible thanks to the development of novel photocrosslinkable and biodegradable materials processable using 2-photon polymerization
Experimental methods:
Photopolymerizable resin is based on a...

Introduction: Being composed of a long polypeptide backbone on which dense brushes of carbohydrate chains are grafted, mucin represents an appealing macromolecule for tissue regeneration and repair applications. However, its use in this field is still under-exploited.
Scope: This study advances the idea that the methacryloyl derivative of mucin (MuMA) can be used to obtain...

Microcontact (µC) printing of extracellular matrix proteins onto cell culture substrates allows for the creation of precisely confining geometries on which to study cells. These printed geometries have proven useful in a number of research areas, including studies of cell motility, stem cell differentiation, and co-cultures of cells with defined geometries. However, the potential of µC printed...

Core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) smaller than 100 nm are in demand for biomedical applications, e.g., as imaging contrast agents, for hyperthermia and in drug delivery, as well as for biotechnological applications such as separation and purification. For all biomedical and biotechnological uses, the NP's functional core must be protected from the environment and targeted to specific disease...

Nanocomposites biomaterials are largely developed in biomedical applications as imaging agents, as sensors, as smart drug delivery systems, etc…[1,2] However, while the inorganic nanoparticles (INPs) are classically embedded in the polymer matrix or coated with polymer, the direct and uniform anchoring of INPs at the surface of polymer nanoobjects is still a major challenge. This is...

Delivery of drugs to the central nervous system is hindered by low permeability and efflux activity of the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Encapsulation of drugs in molecularly targeted nanoparticles (NPs) has been widely studied as a means to improve drug penetration into the brain [1]. For example, incorporation of BBB-homing or tumor-penetrating peptides in NPs can significantly enhance drug...

Bacterial infection in wound healing is a critical health concern. In recent years, the use of natural antibiotic-free agents such as phytotherapeutics has been of renewed interest to suppress bacterial infection. In particular, essential oils are promising phytotherapeutics aiming at the promotion of wound healing and the decrease of bacterial infection. The objective of this study was to...

Degradable elastomers and hydrogels are largely spread among biomedical applications owing to their potentials for use in medical devices, like surgical patchs, or as drug delivery systems, like subcutaneous therapeutic depot. [1]

However, standard linear elastomers prepolymers present some limitations: difficulty to modulate and reach the adequate properties due to their low molecular...

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the development of functional polymeric nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery applications. Nanoparticles synthesized from stimuli-responsive materials enable the triggered release of the drugs at a controlled rate at the target. Although they have outstanding properties, nanoparticles require several modifications to escape the...

The relative success of the currently used diabetes therapies depends on frequent and painful injections, with numerous associated complications and low patient compliance.[1] The oral administration of nanoparticles (NPs) loaded with anti-diabetic drug holds tremendous promise in this field.[2] In line with recent advances in targeted drug delivery,[3] we propose the development of neonatal...

Although polycationic vectors display excellent performance in vitro with many cellular systems, their clinical use remains very restricted. To some level, this is due to the poor compatibility of such systems with biological fluids and tissues. In addition, in contrast to the processes controlling the complexation, targeting and uptake of polycationic gene delivery vectors, such as...