Christina Deng
| Position | PhD Student |
|---|---|
| Qualifications | MSc in Bioengineering |
| Research summary | The fabrication of surgical sutures for cutaneous wound healing |
Research
Surgical sutures are implantable biomedical devices used for holding tissues together to achieve wound closure. Sutures are the most popular surgical implants in the global surgical equipment market. There are thousands of surgical operations using sutures to repair tissues every day. However, during surgical procedures, these sutures are susceptible to microbial adherence and bacteria may enter via the surgical site, which poses a high surgical site infection (SSI) rate. It may inhibit the wound healing process. In extreme cases, the SSIs may lead to life-threatening situations.
Right now, on the market, there is no ideal suture that can accomplish the necessary requirements such as excellent mechanical properties, infection inhibition, and inflammatory reduction. Therefore, an antimicrobial suture with good mechanical properties and that can enhance the wound healing process is highly desirable.
My research uses biopolymers loaded with natural compounds to produce bio-absorbable sutures for facilitating wound healing.
Publications
Deng, X., Gould, M., & Ali, M. A. (2022). A review of current advancements for wound healing: Biomaterial applications and medical devices. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/jbm.b.35086
Deng, X., Qasim, M., & Ali, A. (2021). Engineering and polymeric composition of drug-eluting suture: A review. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 109, 2065-2081. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.37194
Deng, X., Gould, M., & Ali, M. A. (2021). Fabrication and characterisation of melt-extruded chitosan/keratin/PCL/PEG drug-eluting sutures designed for wound healing. Materials Science & Engineering: C, 120, 111696. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2020.111696
