Materials, Advanced Design
&
Manufacturing
107
Keywords
Biocompatibility, wound healing, biointeractions,
medical devices, surface modification, materials
design, interface analysis, surface analysis, stem cell,
3
D tissue analogues, cell isolation and cell processing
Expertise
Biomaterials research aims to identify materials or
coatings which can be used to replace, repair, augment
and/or regenerate tissues and organs of a body. Tissue
engineering is a process either within a body or
in vitro
in
the laboratory to process and provide cells and tissues
suitable for use in assays
in vitro
or for delivery as a cell
based therapies.
Biointeractions
A detailed understanding of biocompatibility and the
interactions of materials with cells is a must to enhance
and develop long-lasting implantable medical devices
and tissue engineering products. Armed with this
understanding, we work to optimise the clinical
performance of implantable devices by manipulating
biointeractions at the molecular and cellular level.
By fostering collaborations between engineers,
biologists, physicists, chemists and material scientists,
the University offers an innovative environment for
determining how the surfaces of materials and their
modification can interact with and control biological
systems.
This focus on cellular interactions at material interfaces
has established many key indicators of bio- and blood
compatibility.
University physicists recently patented the design
of a circular dichroism instrument which is a
thousand times faster than existing technologies.
Tissue engineering
The University’s expertise in tissue engineering has been
applied to the development of 3D scaffolds suitable
for implantation or for use
in vitro
tissue analogues, the
design of annular flow bioreactors, the isolation and
enrichment of stem cell populations, and the control of
stem cell phenotypes. We are home to the UK Centre for
Tissue Engineering which enables the development of
research through to clinical applications.
Members of the University’s Stem Cell Consortium have
played a key role in the development of substrates for the
maintenance and self-renewal of embryonic stem cells.
Biophysics
The University also works on the physical and electronic
structure of interfaces which are important in biology
and tissue engineering. Our research focuses on the
interactions of biomolecules at metal-liquid interfaces,
real-time measurements of conformational change in
adsorbed proteins, hybridisation between adsorbed
single stranded DNA and complementary strands, and
the controlled growth of ordered collagen arrays by cells.
Capabilities and facilities
The UK Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Centre
has a suite of biomaterials and tissue engineering
laboratories. These facilities enable materials
research and development, directly with their
cellular biocompatibility, and are complemented by
additional facilities elsewhere in the University.
These include:
•
BioMEMS laboratories
•
Materials characterisation
•
Spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry,
HPLC, universal mechanical testing, atomic force
microscopy
•
Surface modification
•
In vitro
analysis.
Other capabilities and facilities within the
University include:
•
High performance X-ray and Auger spectroscopy
•
Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM)
•
Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
•
Reflection anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS)
•
Electrochemistry.
The University can access the ALICE accelerator
at Daresbury Laboratory, offering the most intense
source of broad-band terahertz radiation in Europe.
It is the only accelerator equipped with a tissue
culture facility for research on live human tissue.
Relevant centres and groups
•
UK Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Centre
•
UK Centre for Tissue Engineering
•
Surface Science Research Centre
•
Liverpool Stem Cell Consortium.
5.2
Biomaterials and tissue engineering
For further information
on all our specialist
centres, facilities and
laboratories
go to page
179
