Archive for November, 2014

Take 1…minute for chemistry in health

The chemical sciences will be fundamental in helping us meet the healthcare challenges of the future, and we are committed to ensuring that they contribute to their full potential. As part of our work in this area, we are inviting undergraduate and PhD students, post-docs and those starting out their career in industry to produce an original video that demonstrates the importance of chemistry in health.Take 1... minute for chemistry in health

We are looking for imaginative ways of showcasing how chemistry helps us address healthcare challenges. Your video should be no longer than 1 minute, and you can use any approach you like.

The winner will receive a £500 cash prize, with a £250 prize for second place and £150 prize for third place up for grabs too.

Stuck for inspirationLast year’s winning video is a good place to start. John Gleeson’s video was selected based on the effective use of language, dynamic style, creativity and its accurate content.

The closing date for entries to be submitted is 30 January 2015. Our judging panel will select the top five videos. We will then publish the shortlisted videos online and open the judging to the public to determine the winner and the runners up.

For more details on how to enter the competition and who is eligible, join us at the Take 1… page.

Good luck!

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Growing replacement bones – is biomaterial geometry important?

Staining of actin stress fibers

Staining of actin stress fibers to visualize the tissue formed in vitro and to study the effects of curvature (a). The predicted tissue regeneration based on a linear curvature-dependent theoretical model is depicted in subfigure (b). Theoretical predictions match these in vitro experimental observations.

In this paper, Professor Amir Zadpoor reviews the role of biomaterial scaffold geometries on regenerating bone tissue.  Scaffold curvature, pore size, and pore shape are all shown to be important in stimulating more bone growth.

In the case of large bone injuries, the role of scaffolds in regenerating bones becomes increasingly critical.  The ideal bone scaffolds need to be biocompatible, mechanically strong, and contain pores that allow the transport of nutrients and new cell growth.

The geometry of the scaffold plays a very important role in regenerating bone tissue, and is explored in this paper.  Broadly speaking, the curvature of the scaffold, the shape, and the size of the pores are all key components that influence how well the bone is structured and grows.

Strikingly, it has been found that curvature of the surface proportionally impacts the rate of tissue regeneration. Curvature of the surface can be much smaller than, on the scale of, or much larger than cells that grow on the surface. Smaller curvatures can impact individual cell focal adhesions, through which cells can both sense the underlying surface and apply force to it. Larger curvatures can impact cell stress fibers as well as the overall forces on the growing bone tissue.

Pore size can also dramatically impact bone regeneration.  It is already known that a limited amount of inflammation is actually good for bone growth.  Pore size can affect inflammation – for example, larger pores and wider scaffold geometry angles can increase local inflammation.  Pore size can also dictate the amount of oxygen and nutrients reaching the cells, and whether cartilage or bone is formed first.

Pore shape is also extremely important – for example, it has been shown that when cells are grown in scaffolds shaped like parallelograms, alkaline phosphatase activity is increased. Since alkaline phosphatase is a byproduct of bone growth, this data suggests a role for the shape of scaffold pores in bone generation.

However, there are significant caveats to be considered when studying bone regeneration in the lab. Since bone grows in stages, a short in vitro study may not capture all nuances of bone growth that occur in vivo. It is important to study in vitro and in vivo bone generation in parallel to reconcile any contradictory data. Further, it must be noted that it is often difficult to isolate the independent impact of one specific property of a scaffold without affecting another property.  For example, changing pore size can also change the overall mechanical properties of the scaffold.

Despite these limitation, it is clear that the geometrical properties of the scaffold can significantly impact bone growth.  Computational studies and modeling are also now being used to optimize many scaffold properties, and have the potential to drive further research to elucidate the role of scaffold geometry in clinically valuable bone growth.

Check out the full article:

Bone tissue regeneration: the role of scaffold geometry by Amir A. Zadpoor


Web writer Debanti Sengupta

Web writer Debanti Sengupta





Debanti Sengupta completed her PhD in Chemistry in 2012 from Stanford University.  She was previously a Siebel postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a postdoctoral scholar in Radiation Oncology at Stanford University. Follow her on Twitter @yoginiscientist.
Follow the latest journal news on Twitter @BioMaterSci or go to our Facebook page.

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12th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC12) – call for abstracts

We are delighted to announce that 12th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC12) will be held at the University of York on 20 – 23 July 2015. Abstracts are now invited for this event so submit today and take advantage of this excellent opportunity to present your work alongside scientists from across the globe.

This cutting edge international research conference is organised around four exciting and diverse areas of the application of materials chemistry. One prominent theme at MC12 is Biomaterials, encompassing materials for tissue engineering, biomaterials for healthcare, green biomaterials and advanced synthesis methods of biomaterials. Visit http://rsc.li/mc12 to find out more and submit your abstract today.

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Biomaterials Science Scope and Standards

Visitors to the Biomaterials Science website may have noticed that we have made some changes to the journal’s scope statement.  These changes are the result of conversations with researchers about how the journal can best serve a dynamic, multi-disciplinary and still relatively young research field.

Over its first two years of publication, Biomaterials Science has begun to establish itself as a home for research which provides insight into the fundamental science of biomaterials.  With our updated scope statement, we hope to emphasise what distinguishes the journal from others in the field.

To help authors get a better feel of the scope and standards of Biomaterials Science, we have included a list of papers that we believe are particularly characteristic of the journal. This list will be regularly updated as we continue to publish cutting edge biomaterials science research.

Our updated scope statement:

Biomaterials Science is an international, high impact journal exploring the underlying science behind the function, interactions and design of biomaterials. Its scope encompasses insights into the chemistry, biology and materials science underpinning biomaterials research, new concepts in biomaterials design, and using materials to answer fundamental biological questions.

The journal is a collaborative venture between the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan.  It publishes primary research and review-type articles which advance fundamental understanding in areas including:

Molecular design of biomaterials, including proof of concept studies

How to optimize binding of coated nanoparticles: coupling of physical interactions, molecular organization and chemical state
R. J. Nap and I. Szleifer

Incorporation of sulfated hyaluronic acid macromers into degradable hydrogel scaffolds for sustained molecule delivery
Brendan P. Purcell, Iris L. Kim, Vanessa Chuo, Theodore Guenin, Shauna M. Dorsey and Jason A. Burdick

Science of cells and materials at the mesoscale  

Mesoscopic science, where materials become life and life inspires materials
Norio Nakatsuji

Sub-100 nm patterning of TiO2 film for the regulation of endothelial and smooth muscle cell functions
R. Muhammad, S. H. Lim, S. H. Goh, J. B. K. Law, M. S. M. Saifullah, G. W. Ho and E. K. F. Yim

Changing ligand number and type within nanocylindrical domains through kinetically constrained self-assembly – impacts of ligand ‘redundancy’ on human mesenchymal stem cell adhesion and morphology
Haiqing Li and Justin J. Cooper-White

Materials as model systems for stem cell biology

Biomaterial arrays with defined adhesion ligand densities and matrix stiffness identify distinct phenotypes for tumorigenic and non-tumorigenic human mesenchymal cell types
Tyler D. Hansen, Justin T. Koepsel, Ngoc Nhi Le, Eric H. Nguyen, Stefan Zorn, Matthew Parlato, Samuel G. Loveland, Michael P. Schwartz and William L. Murphy

Artificial microniches for probing mesenchymal stem cell fate in 3D
Yujie Ma, Martin P. Neubauer, Julian Thiele, Andreas Fery and W. T. S. Huck

Synthetic hydrogel platform for three-dimensional culture of embryonic stem cell-derived motor neurons
Daniel D. McKinnon, April M. Kloxin and Kristi S. Anseth

A high-throughput polymer microarray approach for identifying defined substrates for mesenchymal stem cells
Cairnan R. E. Duffy, Rong Zhang, Siew-Eng How, Annamaria Lilienkampf, Guilhem Tourniaire, Wei Hu, Christopher C. West, Paul de Sousa and Mark Bradley

Materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

A microstereolithography resin based on thiol-ene chemistry: towards biocompatible 3D extracellular constructs for tissue engineering
Ian A. Barker, Matthew P. Ablett, Hamish T. J. Gilbert, Simon J. Leigh, James A. Covington, Judith A. Hoyland, Stephen M. Richardson and Andrew P. Dove

Evaluation of MMP substrate concentration and specificity for neovascularization of hydrogel scaffolds
S. Sokic, M. C. Christenson, J. C. Larson, A. A. Appel, E. M. Brey and G. Papavasiliou

Heparin-induced conformational changes of fibronectin within the extracellular matrix promote hMSC osteogenic differentiation
Bojun Li, Zhe Lin, Maria Mitsi, Yang Zhang and Viola Vogel

Materials and systems for therapeutic delivery

Cargo delivery to adhering myoblast cells from liposome-containing poly(dopamine) composite coatings
Martin E. Lynge, Boon M. Teo, Marie Baekgaard Laursen, Yan Zhang and Brigitte Städler

“Nail” and “comb” effects of cholesterol modified NIPAm oligomers on cancer targeting liposomes
Wengang Li, Lin Deng, Basem Moosa, Guangchao Wang, Afnan Mashat and Niveen M. Khashab

Protein–polymer therapeutics: a macromolecular perspective
Yuzhou Wu, David Y. W. Ng, Seah Ling Kuan and Tanja Weil

Interactions at the biointerface

Fibronectin-matrix sandwich-like microenvironments to manipulate cell fate
J. Ballester-Beltrán, D. Moratal, M. Lebourg and M. Salmerón-Sánchez

Biophysical properties of nucleic acids at surfaces relevant to microarray performance
Archana N. Rao and David W. Grainger

Biologically inspired and biomimetic materials, including bio-inspired self-assembly systems and cell-inspired synthetic tools

DNA origami technology for biomaterials applications
Masayuki Endo, Yangyang Yang and Hiroshi Sugiyama

Quantitative study on the antifreeze protein mimetic ice growth inhibition properties of poly(ampholytes) derived from vinyl-based polymers
Daniel E. Mitchell, Mary Lilliman, Sebastian G. Spain and Matthew I. Gibson

Next-generation tools and methods for biomedical applications

Application of biomaterials for the detection of amyloid aggregates
Tamotsu Zako and Mizuo Maeda

Alteration of epigenetic program to recover memory and alleviate neurodegeneration: prospects of multi-target molecules
Ganesh N. Pandian, Rhys D. Taylor, Syed Junetha, Abhijit Saha, Chandran Anandhakumar, Thangavel Vaijayanthi and Hiroshi Sugiyama

Nanoscale semiconductor devices as new biomaterials
John Zimmerman, Ramya Parameswaran and Bozhi Tian

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