Dr. Malte Hartmann

Former Post Doc

Additive Manufacturing of bone substitutes made of bioactive glasses

 

Supervisor: Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Bioactive glasses have been applied as bone substitutes for many years [1]. Their solubility, as well as their outstanding biocompatibility and bioactivity, make bioactive glasses very useful biomaterials attracting extensive research efforts regarding their positive effect on bone regeneration and for bone tissue engineering [2]. Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques, including 3D printing, enables the production of bioactive glass scaffolds with distinctive porosity and cavity orientation [3]. While several methods for the production of scaffolds from bioactive glasses exist, especially via the foam replica technique [2], AM aims for the goal of fabricating scaffolds with predefined architecture that can withstand relatively high mechanical loads to be implemented for load bearing applications. This project is carried out in collaboration with the Division 5.6 “Glass”, at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung) (BAM) in Berlin, led by Dr. Ralf Mueller and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

[1] L. L. Hench, Biomed. Glasses 1 (2015) 1-11.

[2] A. A. El-Rashidy, et al., Regenerating bone with bioactive glass scaffolds: A review of in vivo studies in bone defect models; Acta Biomaterialia 62 (2017) 1-28.

[3] Q. Z. Chen, et al., 45S5 Bioglass®-derived glass–ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, Biomaterials 27 (2006) 2414-2425.