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Understanding Tissue Augmentation with Hydrogels
The interest in material platforms formed by hydrogels in direct contact with tissues or cells has continued to grow in biomedical engineering technologies due to their simple implementation and robust properties. However, even with increased interest in these systems little is known about how these material systems integrate into tissues and if they can be utilized to augment human tissues to treat disease or reverse tissue damage. This project aims to increase our understanding of the changes to tissues that occur upon addition of hydrogel systems and identify formulations that can be further investigated to solve clinical needs and improve patient care.
Have you ever thought about how to augment human tissues? Or about how the inclusion of simple yet robust material systems into tissues can aid in the healing of degenerative tissues or chronic conditions? To date, not much is understood about how we can augment human tissues to improve tissue properties for those suffering from chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis, chronic bladder pain syndrome, or artery stiffening. We aim to explore these questions and to improve our fundamental understanding on the use of simple and robust material systems in tissue augmentation. This project will focus on the use of hydrogel systems forming a network in direct contact with tissues. These materials have the potential to address pressing clinical needs in surgery, the treatment of chronic conditions, and biomedical engineering technologies. In this project, you will have the opportunity to investigate the integration of hydrogels into real tissues ex vivo and in vivo (surgical setting).
Have you ever thought about how to augment human tissues? Or about how the inclusion of simple yet robust material systems into tissues can aid in the healing of degenerative tissues or chronic conditions? To date, not much is understood about how we can augment human tissues to improve tissue properties for those suffering from chronic conditions such as osteoarthritis, chronic bladder pain syndrome, or artery stiffening. We aim to explore these questions and to improve our fundamental understanding on the use of simple and robust material systems in tissue augmentation. This project will focus on the use of hydrogel systems forming a network in direct contact with tissues. These materials have the potential to address pressing clinical needs in surgery, the treatment of chronic conditions, and biomedical engineering technologies. In this project, you will have the opportunity to investigate the integration of hydrogels into real tissues ex vivo and in vivo (surgical setting).
We aim to identify hydrogel materials that are highly extensible, impact resistant, and fatigue resistant that can seamlessly be integrated into tissues without damaging or negatively altering the native tissues. To achieve this, we must first build our fundamental understanding of how these systems interplay with tissues and build toward clinical applications. You will use various mechanical testing techniques to investigate not only the properties of the hydrogels but also the properties of hydrogel modified tissues. You will have the opportunity to investigate different properties such as thermal responsiveness, or a zwitterionic nature, as well as solvent conditions to identify formulations that meet our needs.
This is a multidisciplinary project at the intersection of medicine, mechanical engineering, material science and engineering, and biomedical technologies. Your results will play an essential role in improving the fields understanding on material integration into tissues and identifying hydrogel formulations that can be further investigated for improving patient care.
**Methods you will learn/use**
_Material preparation_: Hydrogel formation, ex vivo tissue handling, chemistry of hydrogel formation, in vivo material applications
_Characterization_: Shear rheology, tensile testing, Raman spectroscopy, microscopy, calculation of hydrogel swelling
We aim to identify hydrogel materials that are highly extensible, impact resistant, and fatigue resistant that can seamlessly be integrated into tissues without damaging or negatively altering the native tissues. To achieve this, we must first build our fundamental understanding of how these systems interplay with tissues and build toward clinical applications. You will use various mechanical testing techniques to investigate not only the properties of the hydrogels but also the properties of hydrogel modified tissues. You will have the opportunity to investigate different properties such as thermal responsiveness, or a zwitterionic nature, as well as solvent conditions to identify formulations that meet our needs.
This is a multidisciplinary project at the intersection of medicine, mechanical engineering, material science and engineering, and biomedical technologies. Your results will play an essential role in improving the fields understanding on material integration into tissues and identifying hydrogel formulations that can be further investigated for improving patient care.
**Methods you will learn/use**
_Material preparation_: Hydrogel formation, ex vivo tissue handling, chemistry of hydrogel formation, in vivo material applications