A University of Queensland research group is developing new composite materials for surgical bone implants, to widen the range of options available to patients and surgeons.
The worldwide market for such materials is $1 billion a year and growing as the population ages.
The research group led by Dr Matt Trau of the University's Chemistry Department aims to develop an ideal implant material which will possess equivalent mechanical properties to natural bone, allowing the patient to be immediately mobile after surgery. The work targets an implant to be completely resorbed gradually by the body as new natural bone tissue replaces it.
Dr Trau is one of seven recipients of the inaugural University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Awards announced at Brisbane Customs House on August 3.
He said bone was a dynamic organ capable of self-regeneration following injury. In some cases, however, defects were too large for natural repair and therefore required the implantation of autografts, allografts or other synthetic materials to facilitate the healing process. Although current therapies were successful in many cases, they all had their associate problems such as limited supply of bone from other parts of the body in the case of autografts, disease transmission for allografts and fatigue failure of artificial bone cement and metal implants.
"Given the low density and extraordinary mechanical properties of bone, the design of materials for surgical bone implants presents and incredible challenge for the materials chemist," he said.
"Within our research group we have recently developed methods to produce porous bone implant materials based on Biopol polymer/ceramic composites. The external shape, porosity and mechanical properties of these implants can be easily tailored to suit any particular patient.
"Biopol polymers are a new generation of polyester thermoplastics which are produced by bacteria. Given their biological origin, these polymers are completely biocompatible and biodegradable within the human body. Our current work aims to significantly improve the strength of such implants by reinforcing the polymer with a nanostructured ceramic material."
Since arriving at the University in 1997, Dr Matt Trau has established a strong and vibrant research group within the Chemistry Department.
The research interests of the group focus around the creation of the novel nanostructured biomaterials. Current Australian Research Council-funded programs also include artificial human tissue engineering and the development of devices for rapid DNA sequencing and combinatorial drug screening. Dr Trau said his $80,000 award would directly support these research projects.
In the brief period since establishment, the group has raised research funds in excess of $945,000 ($848,778 of these monies awarded to Dr Trau and co-collaborators), generated significant quality publications (one in Nature and two Langmuir articles) and three patents.
Dr Trau obtained his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Melbourne in 1992 and joined the University of Queensland two years ago.
He has won many academic prizes and scholarships including the Dow Chemical (Australia) Ltd scholarship in Chemistry (1985, 1986), the G.S. Caird Scholarship (Major) in Chemistry (1986), a British Council Postgraduate Bursary (Travel Scholarship) (1991), a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship to the United States of America (1993-96) and the MITI Visiting Scientist, Electrotechnical Laboratory, Tsukuba Research Centre in Japan (1998).
In 1998, he was a member of the Queensland Government's "Biotechnology Mission to the US", with a workshop on "The Future of Biotechnology in Australia" held at Harvard University.
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