Special Medical Engineering Seminar
The repair and regeneration of large bone defects under load has remained a major clinical challenge for orthopaedic surgeons. This presentation will provide our strategies in using a three dimensional (3D) printing biomaterials platform and/or biologics to develop a cell-free therapeutic for promoting bone healing in these challenging situations.
Using biologics such as secreted nanoparticles (exosomes) we demonstrated that adipose stem cell (ASCs) derived exosomes promote the proliferation, migration and osteogenic gene expression of human primary osteoblasts (HOBs), which is potentiated by preconditioning ASCs with one major inflammatory factor (TNF-α). Our findings suggest that ASC-derived exosomes might offer a promising approach to replace direct stem cell transplantation for bone repair and regeneration.
The presentation will also discuss our recently developed 3D printing technology to fabricate novel glass-ceramic scaffold (Sr-HT Gahnite) with distinct pore geometries for use in the regeneration of large bone defects under load or as delivery vehicles for biologics. We demonstrated that Sr-HT Gahnite scaffolds with a hexagonal pore structure, provided compressive strength of 110 MPa (comparable to cortical bone) at high porosity (70%) and interconnectivity (100%) matched by excellent bioactivity when implanted in a sheep segmental tibial defect. Sr-HT Gahnite scaffolds meet the requirements for bioactivity combined with the mechanical strength necessary for the regeneration of large bone defects under load.
Our developed scaffold and 3D printing technology, with or without biologics, opens avenues for bone regeneration in load bearing bone defects in various clinical applications including orthopaedic, dental and maxillofacial applications.
Biography:
Hala Zreiqat is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Sydney, a 2016-2017 Radcliff-Harvard Fellow; National Health and Medical Research Senior Research Fellow; Honorary Professor Shanghai JaioTong University and Adjunct Professor Drexel University. She received her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney in 1998. Upon joining the University of Sydney in 2006, she established the Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials Research Unit, which she continues to direct. Her lab works on the development of novel engineered materials and 3D printed platforms for regenerative medicine, particularly in the fields of orthopaedics, dental and maxillofacial applications. Her pioneering development of innovative biomaterials for tissue regeneration has led to one awarded (US) and 6 provisional patents, 5 as a lead inventor, and several collaborations with inter/national industry partners. She is the Founder and Chair of the Alliance for Design and Application in Tissue Engineering (ADATE), (2006-present), and convenor of 4 biennial ADATE international symposia. ADATE facilitates collaborations/exchanges between professors in the US, Europe, China and Australia, and includes prestigious partner Universities: Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, Tufts University and Hong Kong University. She is an Advisor of the World Orthopaedic Alliance (WOA) (October 2012–present); member of the National Health and Medical Research Senior Research grant review panel and the Australian Research Council Expert College and German Research Foundation. http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/people/hala.zeiqat.php