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Nanofibers for Cartilage Engineering

In a collaborative project with Prof. Dominique Griffon in the Veterinary Medicine Department that has been awarded a 2-year grant from the Beckman Institute, our group is adapting nanometer-scale replica molding methods to the production of biodegradable fibrous scaffold material to be used for cartilage replacement therapy for people with damaged joints. For this project, we are developing methods for using a silicon wafer with nanometer-scale trenches as a mold for making thin fibers with materials and dimensions that mimic the material found in natural cartilage.

Engineered chitosan fibers suspended in media (left) and SEM photo of chondrocyte cells attached to the chitosan scaffold (right)

Reference:

"A Replica Molding Technique for Producing Fibrous Chitosan Scaffolds for Cartilage Engineering," G.J. Slavik, G. Ragetly, N. Ganesh,a D.J. Griffon, and B.T. Cunningham,  Journal of Materials Chemistry, Vol. 17, p. 4095 - 4101, 2007.