The body | Biomaterial as a gymnasium for our cells

Sometimes the tissues in our body can no longer repair themselves. That’s why we are working hard on biomaterials that can help with this. Simply: how do you make this material speak in the right language?

Much is already possible in this area. For example, skin or bone patches that help repair damage that cannot be repaired by our own body or with medication. In order to make this possible for even more organs and tissues, the biomaterial used for this must learn to communicate even better with our cells.

You can think of this biomaterial placed in the body as the skeleton of a building. Included are construction workers and contractors who are helping our cells to restore this building. Not only do our cells have to accept and understand this biomaterial, but when the cells respond, the biomaterial also has to understand what it means.

There’s a lot of work to do on that now. Also in sending personal trainers. It is then no longer just a construction site, but also a gym in which – depending on the type of tissue or cell – a different training program is offered. And all this to be able to possibly repair the damage that remains to be resolved with, for example, a transplant.

In this audio you can hear researcher Lorenzo Moroni from MERLN Institute of Maastricht University. You can read more about his work here: Biofabrication for regenerative medicine.