Manufacturing platform
We have developed a unique, robust, highly efficient and scalable process for producing fibrous protein scaffolds.
How do you make a biological material into a tissue scaffold that will transform wound healing…?
There are several essential design requirements of a scaffold.
Its structure must be porous or sponge-like, with inter-connections between each pore, throughout the thickness of the material, so that cells can crawl all the way though it.
Furthermore, it must have a surface or structure which has features in the nanoscale (ranging from 1/1000,000 to 1/1000 of one millimetre) for cells to interact with.
It must also be composed of substances which interact with human cells without adverse effects such as inflammation or immunological rejection.
And it must be broken down over a suitable timeframe once it is in the body.
UNIQUE Manufacture Process platform
Promatrix manufacture
The manufacturing process produces this network of protein fibres, organised into a 3D assembly.
Most manufactured materials that we use are made from metals or plastics, formed using energy intensive processes.
The manufacturing challenge is to make a physically robust, surgically handleable material from very delicate biological substances in a process that resembles physiological conditions.
Our team has developed and refined a method of achieving this manufacture process.
Unique 3-dimensionally organised nanoscale fibre-mesh structure
Compatible with many biomaterials
Independent design controls over material properties
Rapid manufacture process (>50% shorter cycle time than conventional scaffold production).
These materials cannot be produced by established electro-spinning or 3-D printing technologies.
Platform technology for in vivo tissue engineering
3-D nano-fibre scaffolds have great potential for next generation in-vivo tissue engineering.
Functions
Stimulation and regulation of host healing and regenerative responses
Delivery of Biological Cargoes such as therapeutic cells and extracellular vesicles, gene-therapy vectors and therapeutic nanoparticles
Forms
Continuous sheets for surgical grafting or implantation
Beads for injection or filling cavities
Bio-inks specially formulated for 3-D printing
Composite combining tissue scaffolds with or within other biomaterials, for complex reconstructions
REFERENCES
Lim, X., M. Potter, Z. Cui and J. F. Dye (2018). "Manufacture and characterisation of EmDerm-novel hierarchically structured bio-active scaffolds for tissue regeneration." J Mater Sci Mater Med 29(6): 12.