A Mathematical Model of the Roles of Contraction and Oxygen in Human Wound Healing. Slow or impaired wound healing and excessive scarring associated with burns are both painful and costly. Moreover, the debilitating effect of chronic wounds can be expected to increase with the continuing aging of the population and the current rise in incidence of Type 2 diabetes. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team to develop a mathematical model of human wound healing and to drive the modelli ....A Mathematical Model of the Roles of Contraction and Oxygen in Human Wound Healing. Slow or impaired wound healing and excessive scarring associated with burns are both painful and costly. Moreover, the debilitating effect of chronic wounds can be expected to increase with the continuing aging of the population and the current rise in incidence of Type 2 diabetes. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team to develop a mathematical model of human wound healing and to drive the modelling to generate important breakthroughs at the level of basic science with implications for both experimentalists and clinicians.Read moreRead less
Development of a Prothrombogenic Bone Graft Substitute. The clinical demand for bone is massive and to counter this bone can be either harvested from the patient or bone substitutes are used. The success or failure of a bone substitute is determined the instant it come into contact with blood. The surfaces of traditional biomaterials induce a foreign body reaction. The aim of this project is to test the bone forming capacity of a biomaterial that is optimised to produce a natural response from ....Development of a Prothrombogenic Bone Graft Substitute. The clinical demand for bone is massive and to counter this bone can be either harvested from the patient or bone substitutes are used. The success or failure of a bone substitute is determined the instant it come into contact with blood. The surfaces of traditional biomaterials induce a foreign body reaction. The aim of this project is to test the bone forming capacity of a biomaterial that is optimised to produce a natural response from the blood. This response will lead to the formation new viable tissue and eventually bone. Such a material will cause faster bone healing, less pain from graft sites, shorter hospital stays and shorter waiting lists. Read moreRead less
Use of an animal model to understand mechanisms underlying reductions in body weight associated with use of the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band. At least one in ten Australians is classified as morbidly obese and as such are eligible for bariatric surgery. Those undergoing the surgery will achieve an average excess weight loss of up to 60 per cent, they will have reduced or eliminated diabetes and will appreciably improve their prospects of survival. These experiments aimed at understandin ....Use of an animal model to understand mechanisms underlying reductions in body weight associated with use of the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band. At least one in ten Australians is classified as morbidly obese and as such are eligible for bariatric surgery. Those undergoing the surgery will achieve an average excess weight loss of up to 60 per cent, they will have reduced or eliminated diabetes and will appreciably improve their prospects of survival. These experiments aimed at understanding the mechanisms underpinning this success have the potential to further improve surgical approaches and outcomes and provide insights that will better enable weight loss therapies for all overweight and obese Australians.Read moreRead less
Evaluating And Disseminating The Implementation Success Of A Surgical Training Program
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$181,065.00
Summary
Removal of the uterus (hysterectomy) is the most commonly performed major surgical procedure in women (30,000/yr in Australia). Internationally, only about 25% of hysterectomies are still performed through an open abdominal approach, compared to 40% in Australia. This means that too many women in Australia will suffer unnecessary side-effects, pain and long recovery, keeping them away from their family and usual tasks longer than necessary.
Development of a Light-Activated Bioadhesive for Low Temperature Tissue Repair. While sutures currently represent the gold standard for wound closure, their fundamental technology has changed little in thousands of years. Surgical sealants and energy based closure devices are expected to increasingly replace or complement sutures, improving tissue closure and wound healing. The innovative research in this proposal will develop the next generation of surgical bioadhesive technology and claim a s ....Development of a Light-Activated Bioadhesive for Low Temperature Tissue Repair. While sutures currently represent the gold standard for wound closure, their fundamental technology has changed little in thousands of years. Surgical sealants and energy based closure devices are expected to increasingly replace or complement sutures, improving tissue closure and wound healing. The innovative research in this proposal will develop the next generation of surgical bioadhesive technology and claim a stake in the estimated US$ 4 billion market. The project outcomes will enhance Australia's reputation in the biomedical field and will have world-wide social and health care benefits by ultimately allowing better functional healing through bioadhesives that can be effectively applied rapidly and consistently.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100108
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,000.00
Summary
Ultra-high frequency non-contact vibrometry equipment for biomicrofluidics metrology. This equipment will enable experimental vibration measurement up to an unprecedented one billion cycles per second of motion smaller than the width of a helium atom (20 femtometres). Understanding and harnessing the phenomena unique to this regime, especially very large accelerations surpassing one billion times the acceleration of gravity, will enable the development of rapid protein crystallisation techniques ....Ultra-high frequency non-contact vibrometry equipment for biomicrofluidics metrology. This equipment will enable experimental vibration measurement up to an unprecedented one billion cycles per second of motion smaller than the width of a helium atom (20 femtometres). Understanding and harnessing the phenomena unique to this regime, especially very large accelerations surpassing one billion times the acceleration of gravity, will enable the development of rapid protein crystallisation techniques and constant-temperature organic chemical reaction enhancement for rapid development of new drugs, new devices for measuring the profile of surfaces at video speeds (videoAFM), new micro- and nano-devices for fluid pumping, mixing, colloidal separation and concentration, and new autonomous nanorobots for non-invasive microsurgery.Read moreRead less
The mechanics of being human. This project will lead to far more detailed understanding of skull mechanics in our own lineage. Results will be of great interest to international scholars in both evolutionary and biomedical fields and help to establish a primary position for Australia in the rapidly expanding area of computer simulation of biological structure. Further development on our own established protocols for automated transfer of CT scan data into finite element models, which have alread ....The mechanics of being human. This project will lead to far more detailed understanding of skull mechanics in our own lineage. Results will be of great interest to international scholars in both evolutionary and biomedical fields and help to establish a primary position for Australia in the rapidly expanding area of computer simulation of biological structure. Further development on our own established protocols for automated transfer of CT scan data into finite element models, which have already improved speed, accuracy and realism, will take finite element analysis to a point at which it can be more readily applied to evolutionary, biomedical and safety design questions.Read moreRead less
Tissue Engineering of Human Heart Valve Grown In Vitro. Tissue engineering (TE) of heart valves is a new approach to cultivate a functional heart valve from human autologous cells. This innovative study aims to develop the technology to transplant cells onto a 3D biocompatible valve scaffold that is capable of mimicking native valve. The work proposed is a ground breaking study that will encompass development of a new biomaterial, manufacture of scaffolds using the Fused Deposition Modelling ra ....Tissue Engineering of Human Heart Valve Grown In Vitro. Tissue engineering (TE) of heart valves is a new approach to cultivate a functional heart valve from human autologous cells. This innovative study aims to develop the technology to transplant cells onto a 3D biocompatible valve scaffold that is capable of mimicking native valve. The work proposed is a ground breaking study that will encompass development of a new biomaterial, manufacture of scaffolds using the Fused Deposition Modelling rapid prototyping process, hemodynamic optimisation and in vitro cell culture. This will advance our knowledge in cellular and scaffold technologies and may ultimately lead to the development of a TE heart valve.Read moreRead less
ANATOMICAL ORGAN MODELLING AND SURGICAL PROCEDURE SIMULATION FOR THORACOSCOPIC SURGERY. We aim to establish novel virtual reality-based surgical procedure simulation methodologies, geometric and physical models of human organs, and surgical tools and interaction modules for thoracoscopic surgery or for minimally invasive surgical procedures. This is needed to optimize surgical strategy and to anticipate possible problems that may arise during the procedure, and to train medical staff as the tren ....ANATOMICAL ORGAN MODELLING AND SURGICAL PROCEDURE SIMULATION FOR THORACOSCOPIC SURGERY. We aim to establish novel virtual reality-based surgical procedure simulation methodologies, geometric and physical models of human organs, and surgical tools and interaction modules for thoracoscopic surgery or for minimally invasive surgical procedures. This is needed to optimize surgical strategy and to anticipate possible problems that may arise during the procedure, and to train medical staff as the trend towards robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery continues. What makes this project novel is the anatomical organ modeling approach based on virtual springs and dampers traversing between the top and bottom surfaces of the organs and tissues, contrary to previous approaches.Read moreRead less
Fluid dynamics and mechanical stress of tissue heart valves. Major problems with thrombo-embolic complications and leaflet failure and calcification still exist with bioprosthetic valves. Valves fabricated from polyether urethanes are efficient and can offer more resistance to calcification. No complete study on the haemodynamics and structure interactions is found in literature. Moreover, todate the effect of aortic wall motion on the blood flow has never been examined. A complete holistic ap ....Fluid dynamics and mechanical stress of tissue heart valves. Major problems with thrombo-embolic complications and leaflet failure and calcification still exist with bioprosthetic valves. Valves fabricated from polyether urethanes are efficient and can offer more resistance to calcification. No complete study on the haemodynamics and structure interactions is found in literature. Moreover, todate the effect of aortic wall motion on the blood flow has never been examined. A complete holistic approach to simulataneuosly simulating the fluid dynamics, the valve motion and the stress in a synthetic Polyether urethane valve is proposed. Cell adhesion study will also be carried out. The findings may yield to new insights into valve research.Read moreRead less