Ezzeddine Ben Ammar

Bachelor student

3D Printing of polymer/bioactive glass composite scaffolds incorporating phytotherapeutic compounds for bone tissue engineering

 

Supervisors: Kanwal Ilyas and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Bone tissue engineering usually requires the development of suitable 3D scaffolds which should be nontoxic, bioactive and mechanically competent. 3D printing is a versatile manufacturing technique for the preparation of scaffolds suitable for bone tissue engineering. Functionalization of scaffolds will improve the mechanical and biological properties. Certain biomechanical requirements, mechanical properties or biocompatibility must be considered for an optimal design of a scaffold. This project will investigate the development and characterisation of a new family of tissue scaffolds with improved surface properties based on coatings composed of drug loaded polymer/bioactive glass composites [1].

[1] T. Reiter, et. al., Bioactive glass based scaffolds coated with gelatin for the sustained release of icariin, Bioactive Materials 4 (2019) 1-7.