The Role of Alginate Hydrogels in Bone Tissue Engineering
Student Presenter(s): Serin Ahn
Faculty Mentor: Azhar Ilyas
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
School/College: College of Arts and Sciences, New York City
Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM) is a combination of biomaterials, nanotechnology, and biomedical engineering to construct artificial tissues or organs using scaffolds, cells, and bioactive molecules. The orthopedic approach of TERM is to develop orthopedic implants for fracture repair, bone growth, and drug delivery. Alginate is a naturally derived polysaccharide extracted from brown algae. Due to its biocompatibility and low immunogenicity, alginate has been utilized in countless biomedical and industrial settings. For bone tissue engineering pure alginate hydrogels lack osteogenic properties and are inadequate to be placed in load-bearing sites. Physical and chemical modifications have been made to alginate to address these issues and increase structural integrity. In this paper, various modifications to create alginate composites such as alginate-bio glass, alginate-bio ceramic, alginate biosilica, and alginate-bio signaling molecules will be introduced along with their effects on osteogenesis.