Sometimes, the tissues in our bodies cannot repair themselves. This is why we are working hard on biomaterials that can help with this. Just: How do you get this material to speak the correct language?
There is already a lot that is possible in this area. For example, skin or bone patches that help with damage that cannot be repaired by our bodies or by medication. In order to make this possible for more organs and tissues, the biomaterial used in this must learn to better communicate with our cells.
You can think of that vital substance placed in the body as the skeleton of a building. This includes construction workers and contractors who are helping our cells rebuild this building again. Not only do our cells have to accept and understand that biomatter, when cells speak again, biomaterial must also understand what is meant.
There is now a lot of work involved. Also in sending personal trainers. So it is no longer just a construction site, but also a gym – depending on the type of tissue or cell – a different training program is offered. And all this in order to finally be able to repair the damage that remains to be resolved, for example, with a transplant.
In this audio you can hear the researcher Lorenzo Moroni from MERLN Institute at Maastricht University. You can find more about his work here: Biofabrication for Regenerative Medicine.
