The Design, Manufacture and Testing of Advanced Nerve Guidance Conduits

Applications are invited for a UK/EU 3.5 year PhD studentship fully funded by a ‘Dr Jeff Wadsworth – Battelle’ donation to the University of Sheffield. Ideally, the studentship will start in October 2019 and will be based between the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the School of Clinical Dentistry. A 3-month placement based in New York (USA) is also included in the studentship, to be undertaken during year 2.

The topic of the research is on traumatic peripheral nerve injuries which affects 1/1000 of the world’s population, with serious clinical and social impact arising. However, current forms of treatment are not adequate due to the complexity of regenerating nerve tissue, and scientific and clinical communities are waiting for innovative therapies to be successfully applied to this challenging area of medicine. Therefore, the regeneration of peripheral nerve injuries is a major opportunity and arguably can only be addressed by combining innovations in medical devices with therapeutics.

The PhD student will be based in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and working in collaboration with the School of Clinical Dentistry. The aim is to develop manufacturing technologies for constructing a biodegradable nerve guide. The novel part of this work will see bioactive materials developed in guides for stimulating neuronal and glial cells. This will be based on immobilization of: i) neurotrophins and ii) anti-oxidative compounds using a patented heparin adsorption technology.

This will be used to investigate whether local delivery stimulates nerve repair. The overall goal is to create bioactive nerve guides. If successful, the outcome will see creation of medical devices with clinical applicability to treat the management problems of patients who sustain peripheral nerve injuries, and have a major impact on patient care, lifelong health and wellbeing