What is the issue for NSW?
Cardiovascular disease causes blockages of arteries that supply blood to the heart and the lower legs. Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is an established treatment where bypass grafts are inserted around an occluded arterial segment both in the coronary and peripheral arteries. The rising incidence of cardiovascular disease has increased the demand for vascular grafts, with more than 17,000 CABG surgeries in Australia annually.
Surgical bypass with donor vessels from the patient is most effective, but these are not always available, leaving surgeons reliant on synthetic materials. Existing materials are made from common plastics like Gore-Tex (a fabric commonly used in outdoor clothing) and PET (Polyethylene terephthalate, commonly used in food and drinks packaging. They cause blood to clot and are very slow to heal. With no new materials reaching clinical practice for more than 60 years, new alternatives are urgently needed.
What does the research aim to do and how?
The research has identified the strong potential of silk fibroin, a natural biomaterial. It has demonstrated that silk can be engineered to be an effective conduit in small animal models, but that further performance improvements may be linked to how they are manufactured. This project will establish critical new manufacturing infrastructure in NSW, allowing for the fine control of silk conduit architecture. Further, novel pre-clinical models will be employed to rapidly assess graft performance. The aim is to provide an effective cell-free, off-the-shelf synthetic graft.
The top three key measures/indicators being used to assess the research outcomes are:
- Building a new MEW (melt electrowriting) printer, bringing the capability to NSW
- Develop new grafts with precisely defined architectures
- Identify graft the best architecture in a series of animal models