Prof. Huaqiong LI is a Principal Investigator at Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Science (WIUCAS). Before he joined in WIUCAS in 2015, he worked in Singapore for two years after completing his PhD study in Nanyang Technological University. His current research interests are biomaterials and nanomedicine. In particular, he has been focused on (1) development of advanced biomaterials to guide cell behavior and then applied to the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; (2) construction of nano-drug delivery platforms for cancer and other diseases. He received more than 11 grants at the national, provincial and municipal levels (with a total of 11 million RMB). He has published over 60 journal papers, and co-inventor on 8 patents. He has been co-awarded several awards including Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2021 & 2019 of Journal of Nanobiotechnology (Impact Factor 10.435), China-Australia Young Scientist Exchange Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2019, and the 580 Overseas Elite Program of Wenzhou City in 2016. He was also supported by the exchange program of the Ninth Regular Session of the China-Croatia Science and Technology Cooperation Commission of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Topic title: Low immunogenic decellularized bioactive materials

Abstract:

Bone and cartilage repair have always been a clinical problem. At present, the methods of treatment defects are mainly autologous and allogeneic tissues. Autologous transplantation has difficulties in obtaining materials and causing new defects. Allogeneic repair has problems such as strong antigenicity, strong immune response, insufficient donor sources, complicated operation, and long healing cycle. Exnotransplantation tissue repair materials can not only retain the original natural matrix of the tissue, such as the cytokines that make biomaterials have two important characteristics of bone/cartilage conduction and bone/cartilage induction, but also change the plight of the scarcity of donors. This type of biomaterials is an ideal implantable material with great potential. In this work, a novel scaffold using porcine bone/cartilage components and polycaprolactone (PCL) or GelMA, HAMA was prepared by our research team. Decellularized matrix from α1,3-galactosyltransferase gene knockout (GTKO) porcine tissues with attenuated immunogenicity were combined with biopolymers, wherein advanced 3D printing technology was used to prepare novel composite scaffolds. The mechanical property, in vitro degradation of scaffolds and their interaction with stem cells were studied. Different animal models (rat tympanic membrane perforation model) were applied to evaluate the feasibility of tissue repair using these composites in vivo. The biograft developed is intended for use in patients undergoing bone/cartilage defect healing to expedite the tissue defect reconstruction and reduce morbidity as harvesting tissues from the donor sites are no longer required.