Development of intelligent implant devices with regeneration-inducing property

With the society aging and birthrate declining, irreversible damages of bone and cartilage have become a socioeconomically significant problem, and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine attract a great deal of attentions. Among the three pillars of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (scaffolds, cells and signals), cell transplantation by seeding cells on scaffolds is most frequently used; however, this method has problems concerning safety, invasiveness and cost. We think that the ultimate solution is to modify scaffolds and signals to supplement or substitute the function of cell transplantation. In this project, we plan to create intelligent implants that actively induce bone and cartilage regeneration without cell transplantation through designing and molding biomaterials in three-dimensional shapes and further placing osteogenic and chondrogenic bioactive factors at desired positions.