AO CMF BOOST—Clinical Priority Program

Translational approaches for bone constructs: their impact on facial bone reconstruction

 

AO CMF BOOST

Pillars of the AO CMF BOOST—Clinical Priority Program

  • Materials for bone regeneration

    Consortium materials:

    •  Self assembling Hydrogel (Soft)
      • Regulated endogenous factor presentation
    • Calcined (heat treated) bone (Hard)
      • Particles to improve flat bone healing
      • Blocks for larger defects e.g. Mandible
    • Flat bone approach 
      • Gel Sheets patterned with bone particles
    • Bulk defects (e.g. Mandible)
      • Patient specific bone blocks impregnated with gel

    Cellularized intraoperatively with bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) / fibrin.

    Final product: Off the shelf, patient specific, autologous, flexible approach.

  • Immune regulation/reaction
    Background:
    Immune response coordinates and regulates normal healing 
    In vitro tests lack immunological investigations

    Consortium aims:
    Monitor
    Develop  in vitro immunological testing platform to predict in vivo behavior
    Establish molecular markers/ screening platform for adverse immunological responses

    Control
    Regulate immune response using interleukin binding peptides
    Eliminate foreign body reactions

  • In vivo analysis / Proof of concept
    • Screening
    • Immunological reactions
    • Mechanism of action
    • Proof of Concept
    • Intramembranous healing
    • Endochondral/ bulk healing
  • Mechanism of action

    Background:
    Understanding of mechanism of action increases potential success of regulatory approval.

    Consortium Aims:
    Single cell sequencing to establish osteogenesis pathway

    Single cell sequencing to interrogate immune response

     Modifying effect of mechanical stimulation for mandible regeneration

    • In vitro bioreactors

    Iterative approach to inform material design.

  • Improved Material testing process
    Background:
    Many materials show in vitro promise yet fail in vivo
    Current classical testing process established decades ago

    Consortium aims:
    Earlier in vivo tests “fail fast”
    Focus optimization on promising compositions
    Changing the face of osteogenic material testing
    <p># = first time material function is accurately assessed</p><p></p>
  • Education

    Consortium aims to enhance performance of Fibrin, BMAC and bone void fillers
    Both are currently clinically available

    AO Course Lectures:

    • Fibrin/ BMAC use
    • Bone fillers
    • Potential for enhancement of clinically available therapies
     
Prev
  • Publications
  • Presentations
  • Posters
  • Press releases
  • Grants
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  1. Ligorio C., Tavasoli E., Karaman-Jurukovska N., Ittycheri A., Wu Y., Kotowska A.M, Scurr D.J., Gupta S.A., Moogan L.V., Emmetsberger J., Lu F., German G.K., Mata A., Mammone T. (2024). Non-Invasive Monitoring of Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-12 Interaction with Human Skin Layers and Its Cosmetic Skincare Benefits. ACS Applied Bio Materials (Accepted). 
  2. Padilla-Lopategui S*., Ligorio C*., Bu W., Laurenza D., Redondo-Gomez R., Owens R., Iskratsch T., Sun H., Rose F., Mata A. (2024). Biocooperative regenerative materials by harnessing blood-clotting and peptide self-assembly. Advanced Materials, 2407156. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202407156. *Equal contribution. 
  3. Ligorio C., Martinez Espuga M., Laurenza D., Hartley A., Rodgers C.B., Kotowska A.M., Scurr D.J., Dalby M.J., Ordóñez-Morán P., Mata A. (2024). Disassembly of Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogels as a Versatile Method for Cell Extraction and Manipulation. J Materials Chemistry B, 12, 11939-11952, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TB01575D. 
  4. Murphy J.F., Lavelle M., Asciak L., Burdis R., Levis H., Ligorio C., McGuire J., Polleres M., Smith P., Tullie L., Uribe-Gomez J., Chen B., Dawson J., Gautrot J., Hooper N., Kelly D., Li V., Mata A., Pandit A., Phillips J., Shu W., Stevens M., Williams R., Armstrong J., Huang Y.Y.S. (2024). Biofabrication and Biomanufacturing in Ireland and the UK - Frontier Research for Industry 4.0. Bio-Design and Manufacturing 7(6), 825-856 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42242-024-00316-z. 
  5. Ligorio C., Kotowska A., Scurr D.J., Tavasoli E., Karaman-Jurukovska N., Mata A., Moogan L., German G., Lu F., Mammone T. (2024). 084 Cosmetic peptide penetration and assembly in human skin: A label-free approach, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 144, 8, Supplement. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2024.06.100. 
  6. Watts J.A., Ligorio C., Mata A., Fay M.W. Direct detection camera as an alternative to negative staining for peptide structure determination. Proceedings of the Microscience Microscopy Congress 2023, incorporating EMAG 2023. www.doi.org/10.22443/rms.mmc2023.238. 
  7. Ligorio C., Mata A. (2023). Synthetic extracellular matrices with function-encoding peptides, Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 1:518–536. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-023-00055-3. 

 

 

  1. European Society for Biomaterials (ESB), Turin, Italy, September 7-11, “Influence of Surface Coatings and Topography on Neutrophil Activation and Its Downstream Effects”. Oral presentation.
  2. Swiss Society for Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine, Lausanne, 21+22 August 2025, “Shaping Polymers Into Cell-Instructive Constructs for Musculoskeletal Applications”. Invited talk.
  3. Tissue and Cell Engineering Society (TCES), Bristol, UK, June 18-20, 2025. Plenary lecture.
  4. Peptide Materials, Gordon Research Conference (GRC), Pomona, California, January 19-24, 2025.
  5. NIHR MSK, Surgery, Inflammation and Recovery Conference, 3rd October 2024, Nottingham, UK. “Designing Functional Bone Marrow Niches”
  6. BioMedEng24 at Queen Mary University of London, 5th – 6th September 2024, London, UK. “New tissue engineering opportunities of fibrin materials via innovative assembling and biofabrication strategies”
  7. BioMedEng Conference 2024, London, UK, September 5, 6, 2024. Keynote lecture.
  8. Master in Medical Technologies, Applied Biomaterials and Nanotechnologies: Biomaterials development and analytical technologies, 3rd June 2024, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy. “Peptides as molecular building blocks for regenerative biomaterials”
  9. World Biomaterials Congress, Daegu, Republic of Korea, May 29, 2024. Keynote lecture.
  10. World Biomaterials Congress, Daegu, Republic of Korea, May 27, 2024. Invited talk.
  11. Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting, Boston, November 30 – December 5, 2023. Keynote lecture.
  12. 14th Berlin School for Regenerative Therapies (BRST) Symposium, 6th - 8th December 2023, Berlin, Germany. “Designing multifunctional biomaterials through peptide-protein co-assembly and acoustic fabrication”
  13. The Regenerative Games: Uniting the Worlds of Tissue Regeneration in Berlin, December 7, 2023. Invited talk.
  14. BDI Annual Research Symposium, Talk for the "Regenerating & Modelling Tissues" Theme, 22nd September 2023, Nottingham, UK. “Harnessing peptide-protein co-assembly to engineer multifunctional biomaterials”
  15. 3rd Midlands Materials Chemistry Meeting, 27th July 2023, Nottingham, UK. “Harnessing peptide-protein co-assembly to engineer multifunctional biomaterials”.
  16. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS), Manchester, UK, March 28-31, 2023. Keynote lecture.
  17. First Summer School of SUPRALIFE EU: Functional Supramolecular Polymeric Biomaterials, Aveiro, Portugal, March 19-21, 2023. Plenary lecture.
  18. VI RSEQ Chemical Biology Group Meeting – ChemBioVI, Valencia, March 6-8, 2023. Invited talk.

 

 

  1. NIHR Musculoskeletal, Surgery, Inflammation and Recovery Theme Meeting, 23rd November 2023, Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Nottingham, UK. “Harnessing peptides to engineer regenerative biomaterials”
  2. BDI Annual Research Symposium, 22nd September 2023, Nottingham, UK. “Harnessing peptides to engineer regenerative biomaterials”

 

 

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Grants acquired resulting from AO CMF work

  1. EPSRC
    1. Research and Partnership Hub for Health Technologies in Manufacturing Stem Cells (Mainstream)
    2. January 2025 – December 2029
    3. £11M. Our group receives £150,000
  2. Human Frontier Science Program
    1. 3D-Bioprinting Meets Machine Learning: A Novel Tool for Decipher the Determinants of Viral Tropism
    2. January 2025 – December 2027
    3. £350,000. Our group receives £90,000
  3. Nottingham Biomedical Research Center (NIHR-BCR)
    1. Development of an in vitro model for athrofibrosis
    2. January 2024 – December 2025
    3. Our group receives £80,000

 

The Team

Group photo in front of AO Foundation building in Davos, Switzerland

Consortium Team

4 Institutes, 1 Goal

Prof. Martin Stoddart, PhD

AO Research Institute Davos, Coordinator

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Prof Cezmi A. Akdis, MD, PhD

Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), Co-PI

Institute page

Prof. Alvaro Mata, D.Eng

University of Nottingham, Co-PI

University page

Prof. Zhiyu Zhou, MD, PhD

The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Co-PI

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