New fabrication methods to provide real clinical solutions

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) and Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) today hosted a Bio-fabrication symposium at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), with some of Australia’s leading researchers discussing the challenges faced in revolutionising medical treatments with the use of ‘smart materials’.

The requirements for epilepsy detection and control, bone and muscle generation were presented at the symposium. Advances in areas of fabrication including 3D printing, nano printing and biofiber spinning were identified as potential routes to the devices required for these challenging tasks.

The merging of materials science, biology and electronics through advances in nanotechnology will result in development of revolutionary medical treatments such as implantable drug delivery devices for Epilepsy sufferers and treatments for human tissue regeneration.

Professor Mark Cook (pictured right) from St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne spoke about the current research into implantable drug delivery devices for Epilepsy sufferers. 

“Epilsepsy is difficult to treat, and the treatment is imperfect,” said Professor Cook, “thirty to forty percent of patients have problems with the treatment.”

Professor Cook is working on a device that would be implanted directly into the patient’s brain, allowing targeted delivery of the drug to specific area of brain.  The device would be linked to another which predicts the onset of a seizure, and triggers the release of the drug, eliminating the problems associated with constant delivery of the drug.

Doctor Claudia Di Bella (pictured left) also from St. Vincent’s Hospital presented a talk about orthopaedic injury and the role of stem cells in tissue regeneration treatment.  Currently, researchers are using mature cells in fabricated devices which are implanted into sites of injury including cartilage.  The use of mature cells presents limitations which would be eased with the use of stem cells which can develop into various kinds of cells depending on the purpose. 

With three of the eight ANFF nodes represented, CEO Rosie Hicks commented on multidisciplinary coverage at the symposium, which also featured speakers from University of Queensland, University of South Australia, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Japan and Chonbuk National University in Korea.