Suspended additive manufacturing of complex wounds for precision therapy testing

Complex wounds (leg and pressure ulcers, trauma wounds and burns) are common, high morbidity and costly problems. In the UK >1.6 per 1000 of the population are affected by complex wounds at any one time with an estimated annual cost to the health service of over £5 billion. The overall management of complex wounds in Greater Manchester is projected to be £300 million by 2020/21. The psychological burden of repeated healthcare visits, discomfort of dressing changes, and stigmatisation of illness is significant, making this a major healthcare priority. This is an area with a poor track record in translational medicine, and limited evidenced therapies to meet healthcare needs. The scientific field lacks relevant preclinical models encompassing the complexity of these heterogeneous wounds. 3D Bioprinting offers a potential route to generate 3D tissue models capable of mimicking the native wound tissue structural and functional heterogeneity by the precise spatial deposition of multiple materials, cells and bioactive compounds. However, most of the bioprinting techniques do not allow for direct manufacturing of constructs under physiological conditions. Using a novel suspended manufacturing system, cell-loadable materials can be printed directly inside fluid gels which act as scaffolding systems whilst being supplemented with cell culture media. Using patient complex wound samples to map the cellular heterogeneity allows for precision modelling of preclinical experiments and assay development relevant to advance clinical care.

There are numerous beneficiaries of this Advanced Biomedical Materials CDT. Firstly and of short term impact are the PhD students themselves. They will receive extensive research specific and professional/transferable skills training throughout the 4 years of the programme. They will have access to state of the art facilties and world leading academics, industry and clinicians. The training and potential placements are designed to maximise the impact of their research in terms of dissemination and movement of their research along the translation pathway.

Longer term benefits are that this distinct cohort will become the future UK Biomedical Materials leaders and be able to use their bespoke training and network within the cohort to collaborate on future worldwide funding opportunities and drive UK research in this area.

UK and international academics will benefit as they will gain the next generation of highly skilled postdoctoral researchers with knowledge and expertise not only in their specific research area but of industry, regulatory and clinical aspects.

UK and international industry will benefit - in the short term they will gain academic based research to further develop products and in the longer term have a pool of highly skilled graduates.

Clinicians will benefit from collaborative research and also the development of new and novel products to enhance the treatment of a variety of trauma and disease based needs from biomaterials.

The public will benefit as end users as patients that will have their quality of life improved from the products developed in the CDT and will be educated in novel technologies and materials to repair the human body. The UK economy will benefit from the reduced healthcare costs associated with the new and improved medical products developed in this CDT and subsequently from the trained graduates. The UK economy will also benefit from the increased revenue from medical sales products from the UK industrial partners we will be working with.

The impact of this CDT will be realised by direct academic, clinical and industrial engagement with the students allowing efficient and state of the at training and fast translation of developing products. Students will also be trained in knowledge exchange and will use these skills to disseminate their research to, and liaise with, the key stakeholders - the academic, industrial, clinical and public sectors. We will ensure widening participation routes are addressed in this CDT in order to include equality and diversity not only in our initial CDT student cohort but in future researcher generations to come.