SPEAKER:
Professor Fariba Dehghani was awarded her PhD in 1997 at UNSW in Chemical Engineering, her work in bioengineering research focuses on developing technologies for processing biomaterials, with particular emphasis on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
SUMMARY:
Hybrid biomaterials fabricated from ceramics, polymers and biopolymer are deemed to be the material of choice due to their tunable physicochemical properties. In our studies, we prepared hybrids from natural and synthetic polymers with bioactive glass by formation of covalent bond. It was demonstrated that the presence of chemical bonds between the polymers and bioactive glass eradicates the issue of phase-separation and enhances the uniform distribution of components in the structure of these materials. Assessment of in vitro bioactivity of these samples showed that a homogenous apatite layer was formed on the surface of hybrid scaffolds. Furthermore, it was shown that the presence of chemical bond resulted in uniform degradation of different components in hybrids.
The fabricated materials could be considered as viable candidates for bone regeneration. We also synthesized thermoresponsive copolymers that chemically bond with primary amine groups of proteins. The copolymers-co-protein solution was injectable through 21G needle and converted to hydrogel within 2-10 minutes by increasing the temperature to 37 °C. The gelation time of these hydrogels was favorable for clinical applications. They retained in vivo for more than a month due to the presence of covalent bonds between the polymer and protein. The fabricated hydrogels, therefore, are deemed to have high potential for various biomedical applications such as in vivo cartilage and bone regeneration.