The fabrication of complex structures using biodegradable polymerised high internal phase emulsion (PolyHIPE) scaffolds for targeted drug delivery

There are a variety of unmet clinical needs in oral medicine that would benefit from direct delivery of therapeutic molecules to a specific site, including medication induced osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ). This condition leads to the development lesions in oral soft tissues that expose the underlying bone, which is then infected by a range of pathogenic microorganisms, causing pain and reducing quality of life. These lesions are effectively untreatable, and current work in the School of Clinical Dentistry has been directed at the fabrication of prostheses to protect the site from further injury. The aim of this project is to advance this research beyond protection to delivery of therapeutic agents to eliminate the infection and promote tissue regeneration. The supervisors have recently developed a number of biodegradable porous materials based on polyHIPEs, and demonstrated that it is suitable for additive manufacturing to create complex/custom shapes. In previous work we produced polyHIPE microspheres for bone tissue engineering and we have also combined polyHIPEs with electrospinning to produce a guided bone regeneration membrane. This biomaterial system provides a very high surface area:volume ratio on account of the generation of a highly microporous surface using a polyHIPE approach, and it is biocompatible and already used in bulk in medical applications.

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.