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Nano-engineered hydrogels for 3D bioprinted bone scaffolds

RESEARCH TOPICS

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  • Synthesis of hybrid / functional materials and biomaterials for biomedical applications;

  • Synthesis and design of new organic-inorganic nanostructured materials (based on dendrimers, silsesquioxanes or functionalized silica) and their advanced characterization by different modern techniques (FTIR, RAMAN, DSC, TGA, DMA, XPS);

  • Synthesis of various bio-inspired materials used for tissue engineering;

  • Bio-inks for 3D printing

PROJECT SUMMARY

 

      The current project aims the design of innovative nano-engineered and bioinspired materials that can bring a great enhancement in intrinsic and extrinsic properties to generate predictable nanocomposite hydrogels as platforms addressing to bone tissue engineering (TE).

      The project is focused on pursuing the potential in bone TE of a fascinating combination of two different types of reactive nano-fillers integrated into a hydrophilic polymeric matrix: organic-inorganic nanosized fillers with cage-like structure, known as polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS), with natural fibrillar nanofillers (nanocellulose).

       The organic matrix in which nanofillers are to be incorporated to obtain the nanocomposites is envisioned as a combination of judicially selected polymers to benefit from a general biocompatibility and a good availability as well. Naturally derived polymers such as proteinaceous materials (like gelatine derivatives) and/or polysaccharides (i.e. alginate, pectin) will be considered to simulate the extracellular matrix of the cells.
      The project envisages a forward step towards successfully engineered materials, in line with the newest scaffold fabrication technologies by making use of the additive manufacturing appealing in TE. Hence 3D printing will be employed to fabricate scaffolds with precisely controlled complex architectures using the newly developed nano-engineered formulations (nanoinks).
Moreover, the project addresses another challenging approach aiming to outperform the acellular polymeric scaffolds reinforced with nanofillers (nanoinks for 3D printing) by rational combination of the precursor materials with cells (nano-bioinks for 3D bioprinting). Additionally, in vivo experiments (animal testing) are foreseen to integrate the 4th dimension (time) into 3D constructs to create 4D constructs.

      The nano-bioinks developed in the project framework can become the ultimate materials to enable individualized repair of degenerated load-bearing tissues.

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OBJECTIVES

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       The design of innovative nano-engineered and bioinspired hydrogels is the fundamental objective of BONEPOSS project that pursue a great enhancement in intrinsic and extrinsic properties to generate predictable nanocomposites platforms addressing to bone tissue engineering.

      This project objective will be achieved by developing efficient physical / chemical strategies to rationally formulate new nanostructured hydrogels based on silsesquioxane technology and fibrillar nano-fillers to be used as scaffolding materials.

      A further main objective of BONEPOSS project is to exploit modern and powerful biofabrication technologies such as 3D (bio)printing to build complex tissue-like structures out of the newly obtained nano-structured ink formulations.

      The development of frontier research is driven herein (BONEPOSS) by two challenging specific objectives that also state as elements of innovation in relation to current developments in engineering science:

  • design of the multi-nanocomposite materials 

  • 3D (bio)fabrication approach

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