Study level

  • PhD

Faculty/School

Faculty of Engineering

School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Centre for Biomedical Technologies

Supervisors

Professor Travis Klein
Position
Professor
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
Dr Edmund Pickering
Position
Senior Lecturer (CGRA)
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
Professor Mia Woodruff
Position
Professor
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering

Overview

Millions of people suffer bone loss each year through cancer excisions, traumatic accidents and congenital birth defects

This project will develop advanced bioactive composite scaffolds to heal bone defects using a technology terms melt electrowriting. You will use a special kind of 3D printing to create scaffolds that stimulate bone cells (osteoblasts) to create new bone and will optimise the formulation, size, shape and  culture conditions for the scaffolds.

Research activities

  • 3D printing (melt electrowriting) to create bone scaffolds made from PCL and bioglass.
  • Cell culture and fluorescence microscopy to check how bone cells attach to the scaffolds.
  • Mechanical stimulation of cells within a bioreactor.
  • Biological assays (alamar blue) to see how well cells metabolise on a scaffold.
  • Mechanical testing to check the strength of the scaffold.

Outcomes

The aim is to design, manufacture and test whether a bone scaffold can be created with superior bone healing capabilities

The outcome will be a range of PCL scaffolds with various % incorporation of bioglass to see what % stimulate the most bone formation.

The scaffold designs will vary (e.g. what pore size to use, what size of filament, what shape of pore size) and mechanical tests will be undertaken to make the design as structurally robust as possible.

Cell culture, using osteoblasts will determine the optimised design and the scaffolds will be cultured in a bioreactor which will be designed and optimised to impart mechanical stimulation to the cells to create new bone.

Skills and experience

An interest in:

  • 3D printing
  • biomaterials
  • bioreactor
  • cell culture.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Keywords

Contact

Contact the supervisor Professor Mia Woodruff via email mia.woodruff@qut.edu.au.