Daniel Will

Fulbright Research Grantee (USA)

A New Family of Bioactive Glass for Bone Repair 

Supervisors: Marcela Arango Ospina, Qaisar Nawaz, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Bioactive glass (BG) is an inorganic biomaterial that has the capability to redefine bone and tissue regenerative therapies. It exhibits excellent osteogenic, angiogenic, immunomodulatory, and antibacterial activities, and by tuning its composition and structure, each property can be optimized for a specific orthopedic application [1].

This project, sponsored by Fulbright and being carried out in collaboration with Professor Boccaccini at FAU and Dr. Fabian Westhauser at the University of Regensburg, aims to develop a new family of bioactive glasses modified with selected metal dopants and plant-derived components via 3D SLA printing and foam‑replica methods. Antibacterial durability and mechanical/structural performance of the fabricated scaffolds will first be evaluated. Then, in vitro studies will evaluate cytocompatibility and osteogenic/angiogenic properties of the scaffolds.

[1] Zheng et. al, “Immunomodulatory bioactive glasses for tissue regeneration”, Acta Biomaterialia 133 (2021) 168-186