THE SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

on Tuesday, March 3, 2020

1:30 PM
in GTMI 114

will be held the

DISSERTATION PROPOSAL DEFENSE

for

Chen Jiang

"Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Electrospun Fibers, Yarns, and Scaffolds for Textile-inspired Tissue Engineering"

Committee Members:

Prof. Ben Wang, Advisor, ISYE/MSE

Prof. Preet Singh, MSE

Prof. Naresh Thadhani, MSE

Kevin Wang, Ph.D., GTMI

Prof. Youjiang Wang, MSE

Abstract:

The objective of the proposed study is to design, fabricate, and characterize electrospun fibers, yarns, and scaffolds, which are building blocks of textile-inspired tissue engineering. This study will prove the hypothesis that the textile-inspired tissue engineering would yield artificial tissues with similar physical, biological, and mechanical properties as their natural counterparts. The scaffolds which model after traditional textile patterns have great advantages in mimicking the anisotropic nature of human tissues. However, one challenge in textile-inspired tissue engineering is to develop biocompatible fibers or yarns with sufficient mechanical properties. A widely used fiber-fabrication technique for tissue engineering is electrospinning because electrospun fibers are similar to the extracellular matrix (ECM). However, the electrospinning process is difficult to control because of its inherent whipping phenomenon, which makes it difficult to mimic the anisotropic structures of many tissues of nerves, tendons, blood vessels, and the heart. This research is designed to address the whipping phenomenon of electrospinning.

The proposed research will enhance the robustness of textile technology in tissue engineering and provide new perspectives for the fabrication and design of tissue scaffolds. The modified electrospinning technology will greatly extend the usefulness of electrospinning in tissue engineering and related fields.

The proposed research includes the following three tasks:

Task 1: Investigate cell adhesion, proliferation, and morphology on single fibers with controllable surface roughness

This study will firstly investigate electrospinning parameters leading to EHD direct-writing conditions experimentally and theoretically. Then, it will measure the effects of processing parameters of EHD direct-writing on fiber surface roughness and cell adhesion. This part of the study will reveal the process–structure–property relationship of EHD direct-written fibers, extending the usefulness of EHD direct-writing technology.

Task 2: Develop yarns with controllable mechanical properties for textile-inspired tissue engineering

This study will firstly investigate the solute–solvent–liquid bath interactions during the wet electrospinning process and the process–structure–property relationship of wet electrospun yarns. Then, based on the results, this study will fabricate yarns with controllable mechanical properties for flexible and rapid textile-inspired tissue engineering.

Task 3: Develop scaffolds with designable textile patterns to mimic physical, biological, and mechanical properties of human tissues

This study will assemble wet electrospun yarns into scaffolds via the textile technology. The textile-inspired scaffold will be designed to mimic the physical, biological, and mechanical properties of human tissues. This part of the study will provide new perspectives for the fabrication and design of tissue scaffolds.

Expected outcomes of this research will include the following: 1) the process–structure–property relationship of EHD direct-writing reported in this research will provide guidelines on how to control the morphology and cell adhesion of EHD direct-written fibers, 2) a database of yarns developed in this research will allow the customization of yarns for the textile-inspired tissue engineering and related fields, 3) the textile-inspired scaffolds developed in this research will provide new platforms to mimic human tissues properties by using synthetic materials.