Development of personalized and affordable multi-substituted calcium phosphate based scaffolds for bone augmentation applications

Less than half of the global population is covered by essential healthcare services and the aim of the postdoctoral fellowship project AffordBoneS is to obtain personalized and affordable scaffolds for bone augmentation procedures. Dr. Antonia Ressler (applicant) will study scaffolds obtained by using 3D-printable calcium phosphate multi-substituted with ions (strontium, magnesium, and zinc) crucial for efficient bone regeneration. Stereolithography, as an additive manufacturing technique, is going to be used for printing precise, highly porous, scaffolds based on multi-substituted calcium phosphates for bone augmentation procedures in collaboration with the company Lithoz. After the detailed analysis of physicochemical properties of printed scaffolds, in vitro and in vivo biological properties will be obtained to determine the scaffold's osteogenic properties and the influence of substituted ions on bone regeneration by using stem cells from female and male donors and female and male rats, respectively. Further, company Planmeca will provide patient real cases and the needed technologies for obtaining a demonstration of a personalized scaffold, customized to the patient complex jaw bone defect. The project will be carried out at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology of Tampere University, under the supervision of Prof. Erkki Levanen and co-supervision of Prof. Susanna Miettinen. AffordBoneS project requires a high level of interdisciplinary work and the project is planned bearing in the mind that the improvement in the field of bone regeneration relies on bringing together experts from different fields, who are nowadays distant from each other, such as material engineers, biologists, clinicians, surgeons, and related companies.