Laura Trujillo

Visiting student (University Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain)

Development and characterization of composite hydrogels for tissue engineering applications

Supervisors: Hsuan-Heng Lu, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

The main goal of this project is to develop composite alginate-dialdehyde-gelatin (ADA-GEL) inks incorporating mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGNs) [1]. Alginate-based hydrogels have been widely used in tissue engineering (TE) because they possess many features similar to the extracellular matrix of human tissues [2]. Bioactive glasses are a group of unique inorganic biomaterials that have been reported to stimulate the growth of cells of hard and soft tissues due to their bioactivity and the release of ions that stimulate certain related gene expressions [3]. This project will involve the investigation of physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of the developed composite inks for their potential for TE applications.

1. Heid, S., et al. (2022). Bioprinting with bioactive alginate dialdehyde-gelatin (ADA-GEL) composite bioinks: Time-dependent in-situ crosslinking via addition of calcium-silicate particles tunes in vitro stability of 3D bioprinted constructs, Bioprinting 26, e00200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bprint.2022.e00200

2.    Reakasame, S., & Boccaccini, A. R. (2018). Oxidized alginate-based hydrogels for tissue engineering applications: A review. Biomacromolecules, 19 (1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.7b01331

3.    Jia, W., Hu, H., Li, A., Deng, H., Hogue, C. L., Mauro, J. C., Zhang, C., & Fu, Q. (2020). Glass-activated regeneration of volumetric muscle loss. Acta Biomaterialia, 103, 306–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2019.12.007