Biomaterials Engineering (bioMEG)

The following people are in this group:

• 

  Dr Alaa Daud Clinical Teacher; Clinical Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry ad8604@bristol.ac.uk

• 

  Dr Bo Su Reader in Biomaterials Fax. (0117) 342 4313 Tel. (0117) 342 4361 b.su@bristol.ac.uk

More about this group

The Biomaterials Engineering (bioMEG) group is led by Dr Bo Su.

Our current research activities include:

Ceramics and composites

Human teeth and bones are natural materials having remarkable mechanical properties. Nature grows theses materials from the bottom-up approach using the biologically controlled self-assembly.

We explore the top-down approach from powder route for the fabrication of hierarchically structured ceramics and composites to offer more cost-effective engineering solutions for dentistry, orthopaedics and regenerative medicine.

The design and fabrication of ceramics in different density, porosity and gradient are based on colloidal chemistry principle.

We use a range of processing techniques, e.g. direct protein foaming and freeze casting, to control the microstructure and properties of ceramics and composites.

The potentially applications of the biomimetic ceramics and composites are load-bearing implants, dental restorations and tissue engineering scaffolds.

Nanomaterials and micro/nanofabrication

Nanomaterials have found increasing applications in biomedicine. Our current research interest is focused on two areas: nanofibres and nanosurfaces.

We use a simple electrospinning technique to produce nanofibres in various applications, including wound healing and tissue engineering.

We also explore different micro/nanofabrication techniques to generate micro/nanopatterns on clinically relevant materials such as titanium and ceramics.

Two techniques under investigation are anodisation of titanium and microembossing of ceramics.

We then investigate how cells and bacteria response to these different topographies, in collaboration with partners in cell biology and microbiology.