Sustainable Production Routes for Complex Medical Hydrogels using Biomass
The scientific targets for the project are to establish sustainable conversion pathways to tailor specific functional polysaccharides (BDC), explore new post-modification techniques to introduce photo-sensitive side groups into polysaccharides, and to demonstrate biomedical applicability of these functional materials for the fabrication of complex hydrogel (Polymers that do not dissolve in water) constructs by photocrosslinking assisted 3D lithography (AMIBM).
This will initially focus on the isolation of alginates, dextrans and pectins from biomass and subsequent modifications to aryl or acyl azides or bis diazirines. We anticipate applications from this work as biocompatible materials for lithography-based 3D bioprinting of hydrogel scaffolds in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Timeline: January 2023 - December 2023
Contacts: Romano Orrú and Mark Gronnow
