{"id":42,"date":"2017-06-22T20:24:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T20:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-dev.med.unc.edu\/ortho\/?p=42"},"modified":"2017-10-19T15:24:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T19:24:30","slug":"unc-nc-state-team-up-to-receive-game-changing-research-initiative-program-grip-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ortho\/2017\/06\/unc-nc-state-team-up-to-receive-game-changing-research-initiative-program-grip-award\/","title":{"rendered":"UNC \/ NC State Team up to receive Game Changing Research Initiative Program (GRIP) Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"NC State\u2019s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development (ORIED), along with RTI International and Kenan Institute, announced the four winning teams who will receive Game-Changing Research Incentive Program (GRIP) Awards.<\/em><\/p>\n

NC State\u2019s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development (ORIED), along with RTI International and Kenan Institute, announced the four winning teams who will receive Game-Changing Research Incentive Program (GRIP) Awards. The GRIP initiative will give more than $1.5M over three years to fund the winning teams\u2019 research projects. UNC\u2019s Dr. Jeffrey Spang is a member of the multidisciplinary team that will explore how to efficiently manufacture customizable, biomimetic 3D printed living tissues.<\/p>\n

ORIED put out the call for proposals and the response was overwhelming. They received 59 pre-proposals from over 300 NC State faculty covering all 10 NC State colleges as well as collaborators at Duke, RTI and UNC-Chapel Hill. From the 59 projects, ORIED selected 10 groups to submit a final proposal and then six teams were given the opportunity to deliver an oral presentation. The GRIP scientific and administrative review panel then chose the four winning teams.<\/p>\n

Dr. Spang will be working with eight other faculty members \u2013 five from NC State, three from UNC-Chapel Hill \u2013 on the research project entitled, \u201c3D Printing of Fibrous Tissue Engineered Medical Products: A New Paradigm for Tissue Biofabrication and Therapeutics\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ability to 3D print complex living tissues is a reality. But, these tissues must be customizable and yet efficiently manufactured to resemble the native tissues as closely as possible. The teams\u2019 research looks to build upon the recent advancements in bioprinting. The goal is to develop a 3D printing system to create biocompatible materials, cells and supporting components on fibrous structures. These will in turn form complex and functional living tissues. Dr. Spang has been working with Dr. Matthew Fisher and Dr. Rohan Shirwaiker from NC State on building 3D-printed scaffolds for different orthopaedic applications. Team member Dr. Rohan Shirwaiker noted \u201cTraditional 3D printing cannot achieve the biologically appropriate scale that is needed for some of these applications. So we are looking to build a new system that combines the best features of 3D printing and nonwoven scaffold fabrication technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their focus will be on human knees. \u201cWe are looking to re-engineer different tissues of the knee joint,\u201d said Dr. Shirwaiker. \u201cSince this new system can get to the fiber scale of natural tissues, we want to see how effective it can be. Our other team members are looking at creating these scaffolds to be used in cancer treatments as well as for other clinical applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primary Investigators<\/b><\/p>\n

NC State<\/p>\n