Aaron Hübner

Bachelor student

Design and Fabrication of Bone Tissue Scaffolds Using Melt Electrowriting

Supervisors: Dr-Ing. Irem Unalan, Prof. Andreas Arkudas (UKER) and Prof. Aldo R Boccaccini

Bone tissue engineering aims to produce scaffolds that mimic the structure and mechanical properties of natural human bone tissue [1,2]. Hydroxyapatite is one of the most widely used biomaterials due to its excellent biocompatibility and similarity to the native apatite in human bone [3]. Melt electrowriting (MEW) is widely used in bone tissue engineering due to its ability to produce scaffolds with complex geometries, offering precise control over fiber diameter, pore geometry, and overall architecture [4]. This bachelor study focuses on the design and fabrication of bone tissue scaffolds using MEW and incorporation of hydroxyapatite. During this bachelor thesis, the produced samples will be investigated in terms of physical, chemical and mechanical properties.

1- Alonzo, M., Primo, F. A., Kumar, S. A., Mudloff, J. A., Dominguez, E., Fregoso, G., Ortiz, N., Weiss, W. M., & Joddar, B. (2021). Bone tissue engineering techniques, advances and scaffolds for treatment of bone defects. Current opinion in biomedical engineering, 17, 100248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobme.2020.100248

2- Koons, G.L., Diba, M. & Mikos, A.G. Materials design for bone-tissue engineering. Nat Rev Mater 5, 584–603 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-020-0204-2

3- Radulescu, D.-E., Vasile, O. R., Andronescu, E., & Ficai, A. (2023). Latest Research of Doped Hydroxyapatite for Bone Tissue Engineering. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(17), 13157. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241713157

4-Unalan, I., Occhipinti, I., Miola, M., Vernè, E., & Boccaccini, A. R. (2024). Development of Super‐Paramagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticle‐Coated Melt Electrowritten Scaffolds for Biomedical Applications. Macromolecular Bioscience, 24(3), 2300397