Advances in Bioresorbable Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering – From Lab to Commercialisation
Tissue engineering holds the key to body parts replacements. It has been heralded as the new wave to revolutionise the healthcare-biotechnology industry. This is a highly multidisciplinary field and involves the integration of engineering principles, basic life science, and molecular cell biology. The aim of tissue engineering is to restore, maintain, or improve tissue and organ functions with minimal host rejection. Efforts from academia to industry in bioengineering are increasingly being directed towards the use of tissue engineering techniques in the treatment of a broad variety of tissue replacements such as skin, bladder, cartilage, bone and liver. The significance of tissue engineering research with regard to the technological, social and economical impact have been discussed in TIME, Business Week and Scientific American, to quote a few, over the recent months. The present talk will focus on the challenges and issues in developing a platform technology which integrates medical imaging and advance manufacturing to produce 3D porous scaffolds for tissue engineering of bone. The focus is on the 3D architecture of the scaffolds that trap cells and let them do the work. With time the scaffolds dissolve leaving no traces of synthetic materials to invoke any long term host tissue response. It has been well established, apart from biochemical, mechano-induction of oseoblast to express the appropriate extra cellular matrix (ECM) needs to be addressed in the design of load bearing scaffolds for stress stimulation of bone cells. The material we use is based on the polycaprolactone (PCL) a slow bioresorbable polymer which has been FDA approved for a number of applications. The development of the second generation bioactive PCL will be discussed. Some animal work and clinical case studies will be shown for cranial facial reconstruction and burr hole application for use in closure of subdural hematoma in neurosurgery. The talk will end with some focus on commercialisation aspects of medical devices
Biography
Dr SH Teoh received his B Eng (1st Hons) and PhD from Monash University, Australia in 1978 and 1982 respectively. He is presently Professor and Director Centre of Biomedical Materials & Applications (BIOMAT) at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS) as well as President and Chairmen of Board of Directors, Osteopore International, a University spin-off company. He was the Chairman of the NUS Graduate Bioengineering Programme from 1999 to 2005. Prior to this appointment he established the Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering which formed the foundation for the bioengineering activities in the faculty. He was recently honoured when he received the prestigious Gold Award for Asia Innovation Award, Far East Economic Review, and the Institute of Engineers Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award in 2004, for development of the platform technology for scaffolds in bone tissue engineering. His main research focus is on biomaterials and tissue engineering. He has a passion for teaching biomaterials engineering and in 2003 and 2004 he was awarded NUS Excellent teacher. He has supervised more than 30 graduate students, filed 5 patents, given 40 keynote/invited lectures and published more than 280 technical papers. He has been active in securing more than $7M worth of research grants related to multidisciplinary research which he is well known in medical engineering. He is also known for his strong collaborations with clinicians so as to bring research quickly to clinical practice.