This PFI: AIR Technology Translation project focuses on translating a novel bone graft technology to fill the need for the reconstruction of large traumatic segmental bone defects. The innovative bone graft material is important in treating patients involved in vehicle accidents, cancer patients following tumor resection, soldiers involved in blast injuries, or children with congenital craniofacial injuries that require large amounts of bone graft to maintain continuity. The project will result in a prototype bone graft as an alternative to allograft or demineralized bone for reconstruction of segmental femur or tibia defects. The unique feature of this bone substitute technology is that the material mimics the natural structure and composition of dense cortical bone. This unique feature provides a safe, mechanically-stable, and resorbable graft that stimulates bone formation without eliciting an immune response and is ultimately displaced by the patient's own tissue. This results in a more sustainable healing solution when compared to the leading allograft products in the market.
This project addresses the gap in technology for an autologous bone graft in treating patients with large, traumatic segmental bone defects. A biomimetic approach is used to produce a scaffold structure similar to that of natural dense cortical bone in order to overcome the technological gap in insufficient strength as well as tunable resorption of the graft concurrent with bone formation. In this approach, osteoconductive microsheets are generated by nucleating calcium phosphate crystals on nanofibers functionalized with calcium-chelating peptides. Next, rigid, load-bearing scaffolds are generated by the wrapping and fusion of the microsheets into a cortical-bone-like cylindrical structure. Then, an array of microchannels are formed on the surface of the cylindrical structure by laser micro-drilling to form an interconnected network of Haversian- and Volkmann-like canals for tunable resorption and uniform nutrient transport in the scaffold. The biomimetic scaffold is loaded with bone morphogenetic protein-2 to produce a graft for recruitment of osteoprogenitor cells and regulation of stem cell fate toward bone formation. The outcome of this project is a non-immunogenic, mechanically-stable, conductive, and inductive bone graft ultimately displaced by the patient?s own tissue for a more sustainable healing solution. In addition, biomedical engineering undergraduates, doctoral students, and post-doctoral researchers involved in this project will receive training in entrepreneurship and technology translation through interviewing the people in different parts of the product ecosystem in collaboration with mentors at the Faber Entrepreneurship Center and the Office of Technology Commercialization at the University.
