Serena Best

Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, UK

Advances in regenerative medicine are dependent on the development of scaffold materials which offer a bioactive, three dimensional environment for the support of cells and new tissue. Key to the development of these scaffolds is an understanding of their physical, chemical, mechanical and biological properties to ensure optimised clinical performance. We have established a range of methods for the production of scaffolds based on collagen and also calcium phosphates (and in particular, synthetic hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2). While the control of structure and chemistry over a range of length-scales is reported widely, there are a number of areas which are still relatively poorly understood. This talk will provide insights into the effects of collagen-based structures produced via freeze-drying followed by zero length cross linking to produce 3D collagen environments for tissue regeneration. In any scaffold, pore size and orientation are crucial in their design, to provide appropriate three dimensional pore structures, however we have also shown that the percolation diameter is a key parameter with a threshold value below which significant invasion is not seen. We have also developed improved understanding of the effects of selective attachment of peptide sequences to scaffold surfaces to illicit specific cell signalling and intergrin binding. It is through this work, providing deeper understanding of the processing and properties of scaffolds, that the clinical success of implants will be assured.