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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, A. (2022, August). 3D melt extrusion of PCL/PEG/curcumin-loaded PLA microspheres for suture applications. Poster session presented at the Advances in Microscopy Satellite Meeting: Queenstown Research Week, Queenstown, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Poster Presentation (not in published proceedings)

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, 110, 2542-2573. doi: 10.1002/jbm.b.35086 Journal - Research Article

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 Journal - Research Other

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 Journal - Research Article

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