It was said...

"The seed grants provided the necessary monetary support and intellectual, scientific and entrepreneurial validation that was needed at a critical, early time, and which have led to what is now the focus of my academic career and research activities."

Adam J. Katz, MD, FACS
Assistant Professor, Department of Plastic Surgery; Director, Laboratory of Applied Developmental Plasticity; Director, Chronic Wound Care Center, University of Virginia

Signaling and Cellular Strategies of Injectable Biomimetic Matrices for Craniofacial Bone Tissue Engineering

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Prashant Kumta, PhD

Carnegie Mellon University

Charles Sfeir, DDS, PhD

University of Pittsburgh

The head and neck represent 12% of body surface area but receive 25% of ballistic injury on the battlefield. It is a rare event when such injuries are not severe and life threatening, as evidenced by a 70% fatality rate for penetrating brain injury. Developing a strategy for craniofacial bone regeneration on the battlefield and later on in a hospital setting is of major importance. We are proposing to engineer a load bearing, biodegradable and biocompatible material that could be injected immediately in the battlefield to stabilize the bone wound. In addition this bone cement will include factors to enhance bone regeneration. Once the soldier is transported to the hospital, the stem cell cellular therapy could then be initiated, if needed.

The immediate impact of this research is:

1. The development of a novel nanostructured bone cement.
2. To further our understandings of differentiating stem cells to bone cells.
3. Establishing the proper protocols for isolating, purifying and characterizing dental pulp stem cells.

The long range impact is to transition our bench research to soldier (patient) care. This effort will start with establishing a partnership with Dr. YL Cao in Shanghai China since his laboratory already started patient care using stem cell technology. Establishing a therapy that combines stem cells/materials and extracellular matrix proteins will provide a predictable and effective therapy for bone regeneration. A major advantage of the present research is the ability to inject the smart biomimetic extracellular matrix (bECM) that will assume the shape of the defect or traumatized site, particularly useful in battleground injuries faced by the military combatants. The bECM also contains the novel factors explained above which makes the bECM extremely suitable and promising for inducing craniofacial bone tissue regeneration, a problem that is extremely critical for military applications. Thus the smart bECM devised in this grant application will serve to be extremely promising for providing a solution to the traumatic injuries that involve loss of bone and tissue in the craniofacial region.