Dr Sharon Edwards is exploring the use of textiles in tissue engineering, investigating how fibrous structures can support and guide new tissue growth.
Background
Dr Edwards commenced at CSIRO as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2005.
She has an interdisciplinary background, crossing the fields of textile engineering and tissue engineering.
Educated in the United Kingdom, Dr Edwards has a degree in textile manufacturing, and a Doctorate from the University of Leeds. Her doctoral project was a study of how the structural properties of nonwoven textile scaffolds influence cellular activities and tissue formation.
Current work
At CSIRO Dr Edwards researches the design, fabrication and evaluation of fibrous tissue engineering scaffolds and biomedical devices. This work includes assessing electrically conductive, carbon nanotube-based scaffolds. Her research includes:
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design and fabrication of textile-based conduits for peripheral nerve repair. Dr
Dr Edwards is one of a few scientists at CSIRO researching artificial nerve grafts. In this technique severed nerve ends to be repaired are placed in opposite ends of a narrow textile tube.
Edwards is currently working in a collaborative team, creating textile devices to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration.
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fabrication and characterisation of structurally homogenous and heterogeneous fibrous scaffolds. Biological evaluation of these scaffolds, in relation to scaffold structural properties; pore geometry and pore size, using a range of cell types
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fabrication and evaluation of electrically conductive carbon nanotube-based scaffolds.
View the Biomedical textiles (Video) showing fibroblast cells growing on carbon nanotube yarn.
Peripheral nerve injuries are more common than those to the spinal cord, with about 200 000 peripheral injuries in the United States each year and more than 300 000 in Europe.
Dr Edwards is currently working in a collaborative team, creating textile devices to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration.
Dr Edwards is one of a few scientists at CSIRO researching artificial nerve grafts.
Fabricating scaffolds
Dr Edwards says the facilities and expertise at CSIRO are uniquely suited to her research.
'We have the capabilities to spin novel polymers and form them into textiles, using a range of manufacturing methods, including knitting, nonwoven and electrospinning, to produce structures with the desired properties for tissue culture,' she says.
'There are few textile organisations in the world with the wide range of equipment and expertise of this division.'
Fibroblast cells (green) spanning and filling pores of a nonwoven scaffold (red).
Dr Edwards finds that her enthusiasm for the projects quickly spreads to people in industry. Her projects are demonstrating some promising results.
'When we talk about our research and the range of fibrous scaffolds we can produce, we get strong interest in collaboration,' she says.
Carbon nanotube-based scaffolds
Dr Edwards has led research into the creation of small scale carbon nanotube-based scaffolds and has recently published a paper: Edwards et al. 'Tubular micro-scale multiwalled carbon-nanotube-based scaffolds for tissue engineering', Biomaterials 2009, 30 (9): 1725-1731.
Knitted multi-walled CNT-based tubular scaffold of CNT yarn (black), electrospun nanofibres (yellow) and fibroblast cells (green).
These scaffolds are fabricated directly from plied multiwalled carbon nanotube yarn (MWCNT), knitted into a tube, with biodegradable nanofibres deposited on the outer surface to create a platform for cell growth.
Find out more about Textiles as templates for tissue growth.
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