Marco C. Bottino, DDS, MSc, PhD, FADM

Regeneration of alveolar bone remains a challenge, particularly in sites where vertical bone augmentation is needed for dental implant placement. With the US population aging, there is a critical need to find novel biomaterials and technologies to reliably promote the reconstruction of oral, cranial, and maxillofacial bone defects. Current regenerative strategies for alveolar bone defects using autogenous grafts are challenging due to the limited availability and donor site morbidity. On the other hand, pre-sized bone substitutes (synthetic and animal-derived) have suffered from the lack of shaping ability, poor mechanical competency, and variable degradation profile, thus potentially affecting the regenerative outcomes. 3D printing has become an attractive option to generating defect-specific and mechanically-strong biodegradable scaffolds for the reconstruction of oral, cranial and maxillofacial bone deficiencies. The proposed bioceramic ink incorporates highly degradable amorphous magnesium phosphate (AMP) particles as opposed to conventional crystalline calcium phosphates (e.g., hydroxyapatite, HAp). The hypothesis is that AMP particles can be used to formulate an innovative bioceramic ink, which ultimately will be used to fabricate defect-specific constructs with controlled degradation kinetics. Another unique aspect of the proposed work is that the AMP-based 3D printed macroporous scaffolds will be impregnated with a novel miRNA-modified hydrogel with the ability to regulate stem cell differentiation and angiogenesis. The aim of this study is to establish an innovative, cell- free biomaterials-based technology capable of generating via 3D printing defect-specifics constructs for oral and maxillofacial bone regeneration.

Publications:

Dubey N, Ferreira JA, Malda J, Bhaduri SB, Bottino MC. Extracellular Matrix/Amorphous Magnesium Phosphate Bioink for 3D Bioprinting of Craniomaxillofacial Bone Tissue. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 May 27;12(21):23752-23763. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c05311. Full Text

Dubey N, Ferreira JA, Daghrery A, Aytac Z, Malda J, Bhaduri SB, Bottino MC. Highly tunable bioactive fiber-reinforced hydrogel for guided bone regeneration. Acta Biomater. 2020 Sep 1;113:164-176. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2020.06.011. Full Text

Sikder P, Ferreira JA, Fakhrabadi EA, Kantorski KZ, Liberatore MW, Bottino MC, Bhaduri SB. Bioactive amorphous magnesium phosphate-polyetheretherketone composite filaments for 3D printing. Dent Mater. 2020 Jul;36(7):865-883. doi: 10.1016/j.dental.2020.04.008. Full Text 

Daghrery A, Ferreira JA, Xu J, Golafshan N, Kaigler D, Bhaduri SB, Malda J, Castilho M, Bottino MC. Tissue-specific melt electrowritten polymeric scaffolds for coordinated regeneration of soft and hard periodontal tissues. Bioact Mater. 2022 Apr 22;19:268-281. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2022.04.013 Full Text