World Biomaterials Congress attendance

Last week, SMARTSHAPE team member Arjan Sall attended the World Biomaterials Congress. With this year’s theme “Convergence in Biomaterials: a vision for the future of healthcare”, scientists from all over the world came together in Daegu, South Korea.

Arjan is one of the PhD students on the University of Birmingham team working on the development of an implantable smart biomaterial: a so-called shape-memory polymer. “I presented my research into the development of a material that is able to change shape in response to a thermal stimulus,” Arjan explains. In other words, the shape-memory polymer is a material which can change its shape and can recover its original shape with the application of heat. Integrating this material with the SMARTSHAPE sensor will make sure that the sensor can be transformed into a smaller shape allowing it to be placed into a delivery device,  so that it can be implanted in a minimally invasive way. Once located under the skin, it returns back to its original shape.

Arjan at the World Biomaterials Congress

Finding the perfect blend

To find the optimal implantable smart polymer, it requires testing multiple materials. “My polymer is a blend of polycaprolactone (PCL) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),” Arjan explains. Originally, pure PDMS has been used to encapsulate the sensor. Arjan and the University of Birmingham team have been blending the material to optimise the polymer. Arjan: “I have been able to create a material that is stronger than the pure PDMS that has been used for the sensor, by varying the concentrations of the polycaprolactone and polydimethylsiloxane.” Creating a material that is stronger than the pure PDMS is very promising step for the SMARTSHAPE project. In addition, Arjan has been working on influencing at which temperature the polymer shifts its shape by adding certain ‘softeners’: “I have used polyethylene glycol as a plasticiser to reduce the shape memory actuation temperature of the polymer.”

Biomaterial technologies

With scientists gathering from all over the world, the World Biomaterials Congress was an inspiring place for a broad exchange of knowledge. “The various strategies, such as the use of bioprinting, taken in the application of biomaterials, and the large demand for resorbable biomaterials, which could be an area of further development for the SMARTSHAPE sensor, really stood out to me,” Arjan adds. “The vast variety of applications and new technologies currently being developed for cutting-edge biomaterials was inspiring to learn about.”

Creating the optimal smart polymer encapsulating the SMARTSHAPE sensor is a key element in the development of SMARTSHAPE, to make the injection of the sensor under the skin as minimally invasive as possible. This will bring us one step closer to the minimally invasive injection of the SMARTSHAPE sensor for continuous monitoring, and – ultimately – personalised control of hypertension. Stay tuned for more insights in the SMARTSHAPE project.