Objetivo
Cartilage injury afflicts over a million patients annually in Europe and it is a serious problem due to Europe's ageing population. Hydrogels are promising materials for cartilage tissue regeneration in case they are designed accordingly. The use of synthetic materials suffer from biocompatibility and toxicity problems while natural materials can have drawbacks such as low mechanical strength, limited types, insufficient integration with host tissues and easy contamination with bacteria due to high biocompatibility. ClickBioGel aims to fill this gap through fabrication of bio-based hydrogels for cartilage tissue regeneration using a ternary material system composed of collagen, hyaluronic acid and K-carrageenan to advantage from their synergetic effects, and the “Click” chemistry concept, particularly thiol-ene and Diels-Alder reactions, for the selective and high yield chemical crosslinking of the hydrogels under mild reaction conditions. Chitin nanofibrils will be dispersed in the hydrogel precursor for enhancing the mechanical properties as well as antibacterial and bioadhesive characteristics while RGD peptide will be attached on the hydrogels for cell-adhesiveness. The production of the hydrogels will mainly be in three categories as photocrosslinked hydrogels, 3-D printed hydrogels and light-free injectable hydrogels, which will allow the tunability according to the needs. In vitro cell viability, cytotoxicity and chondrogenesis performance of the hydrogels will be evaluated. With the support of my supervisor (Prof Sangermano), his infrastructure at Department of Applied Science and Technology, as well as the interdepartmental biomedical research centre and the multidisciplinary additive manufacturing research centre at Politecnico di Torino, the fellowship will train me on hydrogel synthesis, photocuring, 3D-printing and biological analysis and act as a pilot for my own ERC starting grant to be an independent researcher.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinador
10129 Torino
Italia