Till Strunk

Visiting student (Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck)

Development of PCL-mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticle composite scaffolds

 

Supervisor: Dr. Qaisar Nawaz, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Bone scaffolds are a promising in tissue engineering approaches to repair critical sized bone defects which may be caused by cancer, accidents or osteoarthritis. In the current work, mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGNs) based on SiO2-CaO system will be produced using micro-emulsion assisted sol-gel approach [1]. These MBGNs will also be doped with therapeutic ions.
Furthermore, the produced MBGNs will be used to fabricate composite scaffolds composed of MBGNs and polycaprolactone (PCL). In order to obtain such scaffolds, filaments (MBGNs + PCL) will be fabricated first, using a  filament extruder. Afterwards, these filaments will be used for the printing of 3D scaffolds. The scaffolds and MBGNs will be characterized in terms of morphology, in-vitro bioactivity and in-vitro cytocompatibility.

[1] Q. Nawaz, et al., Synthesis and characterization of manganese containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for biomedical applications, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 5 (2018).