EU project to develop synthetic bone and tissue replacements
Novelscaff, a new EUR 1.2 million project, has started working on ways to produce synthetic bone and soft tissue, a development which could prove promising for the thousands of people affected each year by disease and trauma. Currently, when a bone or vascular tissue is damaged, it is replaced using grafts of bone or soft tissue from elsewhere on a patient's body. But grafting bone and tissue can be problematic, as Lisa Looney, Director of the Dublin City University materials processing research centre and Novelscaff project coordinator, explains: 'Tissue may not be available, and the 'double' procedure of two operations, one to harvest the bone or soft tissue, and another to 'fit' it in the replacement site, incurs higher risk of infection, pain and prolongs hospital stays.' During the past 30 years a variety of synthetic bone and soft tissue graft substitutes has become available. 'But [they] haven't found widespread application due to difficulties in producing the optimum material structure and properties, in a repeatable and controllable manner,' says Dr Looney. Funded under the Marie Curie Early Stage Training programme, the project will investigate, over the next three years, a number of innovative manufacturing processes with a view to achieving this control and repeatability. It will also seek to refine the architecture, strength and texture of the tissue substitutes and measure living cells' response to these new synthetic replacements. For bone replacement, researchers will look at synthetic materials such as calcium phosphate bioceramics mixed with various bio polymers. For vascular work, special polymers will be tested, called hydrogels, that swell in water to form a gel-like material that acts as a scaffold.
Countries
Ireland