Events

Dr. David Eglin, The AO Foundation: from novel biomaterials to musculoskeletal solutions

Date: Monday 25 March 2013 11:00 - 12:30

Location: SEMS Seminar Room (3rd Floor Engineering)

I would like to kindly invite you to a talk by Dr. David Eglin from the AO Research Institute (ARI) in Davos, Switzerland titled “The AO Foundation: from novel biomaterials to musculoskeletal solutions”on Monday, March 25th, 2013 at 11:00 am in the SEMS Seminar Room.

Dr. Eglin will present two projects in the field of biomaterials currently being developed at the ARI as well as a general overview of the ARI. Please find below an abstract and some informative videos.

The AO Foundation: from novel biomaterials to musculoskeletal solutions
David Eglin, Principal Investigator
AO Research Institute Davos, Clavadelerstrasse 8, 7270 Davos Platz, Switzerland
Email: david.eglin@aofoundation.org
Website: www.aofoundation.org

Abstract
With the emergence of new materials and the development of biological therapies in the last two decades, the AO Research Institute Davos (ARI) has become a multidisciplinary group focusing on a holistic approach of the repair of traumatic and degenerative injuries combining specialist knowledge in order to investigate cell/ material interactions both in vitro and in vivo. To illustrate the translational and exploratory research performed in the ARI, two studies are presented:

- Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is used advantageously to replace metals in devices such as spine cages. However, PEEK has an intrinsic low surface energy potentially resulting in fibrous encapsulation which in turn can cause implant loosening. The goal of this study was to quantify, in a relevant in vivo model the translational potential of stable oxygen plasma surface modification to improve PEEK-tissue interactions.

- The behavior of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) supplied to the degenerating intervertebral disc (IVD) is still not fully understood and can be negatively affected by the IVD environment. Thus, a thermoreversible hyaluronan-based hydrogel for the three dimensional in vitro culture of hMSCs to assess best conditions for disc phenotype differentiation was developed. The injection of hMSCs in combination with the thermoreversible hyaluronan hydrogel was evaluated and the preconditioning in the hydrogel was assessed in term of contribution to a better hMSC response ex-vivo.

Links
Video AO Foundation: vimeo.com/33392585
Video AO research Institute: vimeo.com/35314117