Ana Iglesias-Mejuto, PhD student from I+D Farma (USC), has been awarded with the best poster presentation at 3^rd International Conference on Aerogels for Biomedical and Environmental applications, held in Maribor (Slovenia) on 5-7 July 2023 for the work entitled “3D-printed and vancomycin loaded aerogels scaffolds for advanced bone tissue engineering”. This work was developed in collaboration with the Tecnológico de Costa Rica.

In this work, sterilized and dual porous aerogels with outstanding biological performance were manufactured by a dual processing strategy combining 3D-printing and scCO₂ drying, firstly described in the article “3D-printed alginate-hydroxyapatite aerogel scaffolds for bone tissue engineering” published in Material Science and Engineering:C (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2021.112525)

3D-printed alginate-hydroxyapatite aerogel scaffolds for bone tissue engineering 3D-printing technology allows the automated and reproducible manufacturing of functional structures for tissue engineering with customized geometries … doi.org

 

Furthermore, the incorporation of a drug commonly employed in bone pathology was carried out with promising results in terms of growth inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus, main pathogen in bone infections. An extensive textural, biological, and drug evaluation were performed regarding bone tissue engineering.