PhD Eng. Dorota Kolbuk Konieczny from our group is the laureate of the call Small Grant Scheme 2020 financed with the participation of Norwegian funds under the “Applied Research” Program organized by the National Centre of Research and Development.
The project aims to develop an implant prototype for ACL reconstruction and regeneration and verify its biological and mechanical performance in preclinical conditions. The developed prototype of the implant will have biomimetic properties. The biocompatibility of the implant will be verified, and preclinical studies on small and large animals will be carried out with our external partners.
Currently, in the case of significant damage to ligaments and tendons, the standard treatment approach is to use autografts. In some instances, autografts are replaced by decellularised allografts or xenografts. Gold standard treatments do not bring the expected results. For this reason, the overall aim of the research today is to develop a modern, innovative graft for reconstructing and regenerating ACLs. An artificial graft should provide biocompatibility, continuous and uninterrupted pore structure, good mechanical properties, bioactivity, and successfully replace functions of the natural ligament. It has to be able to work in the presence of ,,an aggressive” environment of synovial fluids. For this reason, their structure should be stable during the time of cell migration through the artificial graft. It should also promote cell activity. Among commercially available implants for ACL rebuilding and those being studied in the literature are mainly nonwovens and braided fabrics. A new trend has appeared in the literature, which combines the advantages of different artificial graft-forming techniques to achieve a hybrid structure mimicking the structure and mechanical properties of natural ACL.
Information about the project’s progress you will find on: ligamed.ippt.pan.pl.
The National Centre for Research and Development Is the program operator of the program ‘Applied Research’ implemented under The Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021. The aim of the project Small Grant Scheme 2020 are applications research in engineering and technical science, including: civil engineering, electrical engineering, electronics, information engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, material engineering, medical engineering, environmental engineering, environmental biotechnology, industrial biotechnology, nanotechnology, other engineering and technical sciences.
Due to the specific nature of the competition, only female scientists can become Principal Investigators in the Small Grant Scheme 2020 competition. List of the laureate is available on the website: https://www.gov.pl/web/ncbr/small-grant-scheme-2020-call
