1. Introducing BIOMATERIALS

2. Teachers in Residence Programme
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Teachers in Residence Programme
Iseult Mangan and Tom Flanagan

3. MEDICAL DEVICES
Any material, apparatus, software or other article that is used to:
Diagnose, prevent, monitor or treat a disease or injury
Investigate, replace or modify a part or process of the body

4. CAN YOU NAME SOME MEDICAL DEVICES?

5. MILESTONES-MEDICAL DEVICES
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1752 Flexible Catheter-Benjamin Franklin invented the flexible catheter, made of hinged metal segments, for his brother John, who suffered from bladder stones. Previously, catheters had been hard tubes, jammed into the bladder through the urethra.
1815 Stethoscope-René Laënnec, a French physician, invented the stethoscope, a trumpet-shaped wooden tube, to examine a very fat woman whose heart he could not hear by pressing his ear to her chest.
1841 Anaesthesia-Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first operation using diethyl ether as an anesthetic. He pressed an ether-soaked towel against the patient's face to put him to sleep, then removed one of two tumors from his neck. He billed the patient $2, itemizing the cost of the ether as well as the operation.
1895 X-Rays-Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, a German physicist, discovered X-rays and took the first picture using X-rays of his wife Anna’s hand. When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed “I have seen my death!”
1936 Pacemaker-Dr. Albert S. Hyman demonstrated a heart pacemaker. The device was about 10 inches long and weighed less than a pound; it supplied the heart with a current with adjustable voltage.
1943 Dialysis-Willem J. Kolff, a Dutch physician, built the first dialysis machine, working with tin cans and parts from washing machines.
1963 Artificial Heart-Paul Winchell, the ventriloquist and inventor, patented the first artificial heart, developed in collaboration with Dr. Henry J. Heimlich, later famous for the Heimlich maneuver.
1978 MRI-Dr. Raymond V. Damadian announced that he had patented a technique using nuclear magnetic resonance to distinguish between normal and cancerous tissue.

6. Biomaterials are used to make various medical devices
What are BIOMATERIALS?

7. Biomaterials

8. WHAT ARE BIOMATERIALS?
A biomaterial is made from a natural or synthetic material that can be engineered to help the body heal itself
A biomaterial can be introduced into the body as part of an implanted medical device or used to replace an organ
A biomaterial can be temporary or permanent

9. Must have appropriate physical properties for the area of the body they are being used
Can easily be made into a shape of choice
Must be noncarcinogenic
Must be biocompatible
Must be nontoxic
Biomaterials

10. SYNTHETIC BIOMATERIALS
Materials made by humans, like plastic or metal
Good:
They are easy to make and exactly the way you need
Bad:
Sometimes the body does not like them

11. SYNTHETIC BIOMATERIALS Where would you use them in the body?
Type
Where would you use them in the body?
Examples
Metal
Hips, knees, shoulders, ankles
Wires, screws, plates, artificial joints, stents
Polymer
Face, trachea, kidney, liver, heart, teeth/dentistry, hips, knees
Tubes, dentures, adhesives, sealants, sutures, coatings
Ceramic
Teeth/dentistry, joints
Crowns, dentures, artificial joints, bone repair
Composite
Teeth/dentistry, limbs
Prosthetic limbs, dental cement, crowns

12. NATURAL BIOMATERIALS Materials from nature and made from cells
Algae found in freshwater and seawater
Shells of crabs and prawns
Silk from butterfly
cocoons
Alginate from seaweed
Good: The body likes them Bad: People can’t make them

13. Cells are very happy to grow on collagen!
NATURAL BIOMATERIALS
Example: Collagen
Most commonly found protein in animals
Forms a large component of connective tissues
There are at least ten types of collagen in the body
Type I-skin, bone and tendons
Type II-cartilage in joints
Type III-blood vessels
Used as a biomaterial for wound healing, in the skin for cosmetic surgery
Cells are very happy to grow on collagen!

14. Fibres
Nanospheres
Scaffolds can be made out of biomaterials, such as collagen, to support new tissues to grow
Sponges
Meshes

15. Cells can be added to scaffolds…
…to repair tissues, like the heart or tendons
Cells
Scaffold
Implant into the body
to support new tissues to grow
Medicine

16. Medicine can be added to scaffolds
Medicine makes cells do different things:
Make more cells proliferate
Behave in certain ways differentiate
Move into scaffold migrate
Medicine in a sphere can be released over a long period of time

17. Spheres protect the medicine
The medicine can be put into a very tiny ball called a sphere
The sphere lets go of the medicine slowly
The sphere stops the medicine from washing away
Sphere
Proliferate
Differentiate
Migrate

18. Activity: Make a collagen scaffold
Inflate balloon to ¼ of its capacity and tie off
Cut pieces of string then dip in PVA glue
Tie glued string to knot of balloon, and wrap around the balloon
Repeat with more strings until most of surface of the balloon is covered
Tie a piece of string to knot of balloon, and use it to hang balloon up to dry

19. Activity: Make a collagen scaffold
Once the glue has dried:
Gently push the balloon away from string
Burst the balloon and remove carefully from string mesh
You should now have a large replica of a collagen scaffold!

21. References:
Handbook of Materials for Medical Devices, 2003 ASM International
“Milestones in Medical Technology,” New York Times, Published October 10, 2012
commons.wikimedia.org
vimeo.com
gpwalsh.com/the-shift/
animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/red-crab/
Sincere thanks to all of the researchers who gave lectures and generously gave their time throughout the course.
Thanks also to all the participating teachers who very kindly shared ideas and resources.

22. This publication has emanated from research conducted with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund under Grant Number 13/RC/2073.
This project has been funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-ITN) and Grant Agreement Number (AngioMatTrain). This project has also been funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks and Grant Agreement Numbers (BrainMatTrain) and (Tendon Therapy Train).