Mechanical loading in bone tissue engineering: scaling-up, commercialising and translating technologies
| Dates: | 21 October 2016 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Dr James Henstock |
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Healthy bone requires dynamic mechanical loading, yet mechanical stimuli are often lacking in tissue engineered or stem cell-based approaches for bone regeneration, and are generally completely absent during in vitro culture.
We have therefore developed two core technologies for mechanically stimulating cells in tissue engineered bone which can be applied to virtually any in vitro construct. Firstly, a bioreactor culture environment which uses gas pressure to compress cells simulates normal physiological loading and accommodates standard well plates. The second technology uses magnetic nanoparticles that directly target cell-surface mechanosensors and transduces forces from an external magnetic field, effectively providing ‘remote controlled’ mechanotransduction by using the magnet as a switch.
Both approaches have been tested using stem cell-seeded biomaterials and an ex vivo developing chick foetal femur (a model for endochondral bone formation). The nanoparticle-based method is also currently undergoing translation via a large animal model (sheep bone non-union). By exploiting unused mechanotransduction pathways, these technologies are fully compatible with biomaterial-based approaches and growth factor delivery, and serve to provide a synergistic enhancement for optimising the regeneration of bone.
Speaker
Dr James Henstock
Organisation: University of Liverpool
Travel and Contact Information
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Michael Smith Lecture Theatre
Michael Smith Building
Manchester
