And with a great stroke association following up on promising
research this would be looked at to repurpose it for stroke repair. We
need to repair 12 km (7.5 miles) of connections for each minute of infarct. But nothing will occur.
Research on injectable oriented hydrogels for spinal cord repair - Maybe stroke?
The research objective of Dr.-Ing. Laura De Laporte, junior group
leader at DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials in Aachen,
is to develop a minimally invasive therapy for spinal cord injury. Her
goal and her scientific approach to develop an injectable material with
the ability to provide biochemical and physical guidance for
regenerating nerves across the injury site, was selected by the European
Research Council (ERC). Laura De Laporte now receives a 1.5 Million
Euro ERC Starting Grant for her project ANISOGEL.
Spinal cord injury affects approximately two million people worldwide
and is devastating as it leads to a loss of motor and sensory function
below the point of injury. Regenerative therapies therefore try to
restore nerve tracts and their function. Human neural stem cells or
oligodendrocytes, which form the myelin sheet around the nerve cells,
have been successfully transplanted into the damaged area and have
created a spark of hope. To support these transplanted and other native
cells at the injury site, and to guide neuron growth across this area,
scientists are also investigating nerve bridges that are made of
biomaterials, provide functional domains, and release growths factors.
Unfortunately, such implants still face the challenge to stimulate the
growing nerves to cross the point of injury and reenter the healthy
spinal cord to rebuild functional connections.
In her project ANISOGEL, Laura De Laporte will engineer an injectable
biomaterial that can be used as a matrix for a minimally invasive
therapy to support oriented regeneration of damaged nerves. The material
is based on a soft, water-rich polymeric network (hydrogel), which gels
in situ and can be designed to mimic the conditions of the natural cell
environment. The physical, chemical, and biological properties of these
gels can be tailored bottom-up to resemble the body’s own extracellular
matrix that provides mechanical and biological support to the cells.
“A hydrogel-based approach is not new. The innovative aspect about
ANISOGEL is that we want to synthesize a material that can be
hierarchically structured and form an anisotropic architecture in situ,”
explains De Laporte. “This will improve the cells’ spatial orientation,
which is crucial for nerve repair. The hydrogel will be further
modified with biological signaling molecules to create an environment
that stimulates cellular processes necessary for spinal cord
regeneration and to regain functionality.”
Laura De Laporte received her Masters in Chemical Engineering at the
University of Ghent and obtained her PhD in the laboratory of Prof.
Lonnie Shea at Northwestern University in the United States. There, she
focused on the development of multiple channel bridges with the ability
for DNA and protein delivery for spinal cord repair. As a post-doctoral
researcher at EPFL (Switzerland) in the laboratory of Prof. Jeffrey
Hubbell, she engineered extracellular matrix-like hydrogels for tissue
and nerve repair. She started her junior research group at DWI in
October 2013. With the ERC Starting Grant, the European Research Council
supports her work for the next five years.
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