Tailoring composition, bioactivity, and porous structure of 3D-printed scaffolds for tissue engineering

Title: Tailoring composition, bioactivity, and porous structure of 3D-printed scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract:

Advanced regenerative medicine strategies rely on the use of 3D scaffolds with tailored composition and porous structure in order to optimize tissue engineering processes. This contribution aims at overviewing recent research activities carried out in this context and focussed on the application of additive manufacturing (AM), often referred to as 3D printing, to develop novel approaches for processing bioactive polymeric materials. In particular, the employment of computer-aided wet-spinning (CAWS), a non solvent-induced AM technique, for the fabrication of 3D scaffolds with a dual-scale porosity (macro- and micro-structured) will be presented. The employment of different biodegradable scaffolding polymers, including synthetic and natural aliphatic polyesters, e.g., poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), as well as polysaccharides from marine sources, e.g., chitosan and alginate, will be discussed. In addition, special attention will be devoted to recent research on novel AM strategies for loading polymeric scaffolds with osteoinductive ceramics, antibiotics, or natural anti-inflammatory/antimicrobial agents (e.g., flavonoids and eugenol), in order to endow the polymeric matrix with bioactive properties. The potential of the developed bioactive device prototypes for advanced biomedical applications, such as bone regeneration, will by highlighted through the description of tailored experimental activities focused on their physical-chemical and biological characterization.

Audience Take Away Notes :

• The audience will gain advanced knowledge on modern additive manufacturing approaches to biomedical polymer processing
• The audience will be able to design novel experimental activities in bioactive polymeric materials processing and characterization 
• The presented research could help other scientists to expand their research or teaching in the field of polymeric materials science and  technology

Biography:

Dr. Puppi studied Chemical Engineering at University of Pisa, Italy, and graduated as MS in 2005. She then joined the research group of Prof. Emo Chiellini at the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa. He received his PhD degree in Biomaterials in 2009 at the same institution, where he currently works as Senior Research Fellow in Industrial Chemistry. He has published more than 60 research articles in SCI(E) journals, receiving more than 2700 citations (Scopus database).