WOUND DRESSINGS that can deliver healing genes and tiny scaffolds that can guide growing nerve cells are among Irish research projects being highlighted at a major international conference on biomaterials under way in Dublin this week.
“Biomaterials are materials that you can implant in the body which can be used for a multitude of purposes,” said Prof Abhay Pandit, director the Network of Excellence for Functional Biomaterials (NFB), a Science Foundation Ireland-funded research cluster based at NUI Galway.
Applications for biomaterials include hip implants, stents, heart valves and pacemakers, wound dressings and, in some cases, nanoscale systems for delivering genes, drugs and vaccines.
“The kinds of disease targets that have opened up are phenomenal. In the future you will find biomaterials in almost every therapeutic application,” said Prof Pandit.
About 950 delegates are expected to attend the 24th European Conference on Biomaterials this week, which is being hosted by the NFB and the University of Ulster.
The international event is discussing subjects as wide ranging as engineering bone, infection, learning about bio-adhesives from nature, building materials to help deliver drugs in the body and looking to the sea for inspiration for biomaterials.
“It is pride and joy for Ireland to host such a major scientific conference, and what it also signifies is the level of activity that is happening in Ireland,” said Prof Pandit.
Several projects from the NFB are being presented at the conference, including one that seeks to use a biomaterial product in wound dressings to deliver gene therapy that could help chronic wounds to close and heal.
Another study is developing a trellis or scaffold made of protein to provide nerve cells with structural and biological cues, and so could help guide peripheral nerves to regenerate after injury.
It will likely be several years before some of the emerging biomaterials applications would be available in the clinic, and one focus of this week’s conference is to engage with industry and identify how to translate the next generation of biomaterials to the patient, according to Prof Pandit. “Because at the end of the day we want to see what we do in the lab move into the clinic.”
