Kristina Lasch

The relatively new approach of combining herbal medicine or phytotherapeutics with biomaterials is a promising area of research. Especially bioactive glasses are interesting materials for bone regeneration due to their ability to not only replace, but also regenerate bone defects, which relies on their bioactivity and biodegradability [1]. There are emerging studies on the combination of bioactive glasses with natural plant-derived antibacterial agents [2].

This bachelor thesis aims to prepare porous bioactive glass scaffolds for bone regeneration with a coating of the natural protein zein [3] and the addition of plant-derived antibacterial molecules. The idea of the coating is to improve the mechanical properties of the brittle glass scaffolds and to benefit from the antibacterial, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory effect of phytotherapeutic agents [3]. The scaffolds will be characterized in terms of mechanical properties, bioactivity and antibacterial effect.

[1] LC Gerhardt, AR Boccaccini, Bioactive glass and glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, Materials 3 (7), (2010) 3867-3910.

[2] ME Galarraga‐Vinueza, et al., Mesoporous bioactive glass embedding propolis and cranberry antibiofilm compounds,J. Biomed. Mater. Res. Part A 106 (2018) 1614-1625.

[3] Z Fereshteh, et al., The effect of coating type on mechanical properties and controlled drug release of PCL/zein coated 45S5 bioactive glass scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, Mater. Sci. Eng. C 54 (____2015) 50-60