Advances and Challenges of Biomodels for Medical Applications

A special issue of Journal of Functional Biomaterials (ISSN 2079-4983).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 3324

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Technology, School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Santa Apolónia Campus, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal
Interests: prosthetic materials; design, control, and biomechanics of prosthesis; manufacturing processes of prosthesis
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Guest Editor
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Avenida Mestre José Veiga s/n, 4715-330 Braga, Portugal
Interests: microfluidics systems; cells mechanical phenotyping; cancer rare cells isolation; blood flow numerical simulations and modelling and 3D manufacturing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A biomodel is an entity that reproduces the geometry of a biological structure and can be obtained in either physical or virtual forms. To manufacture biomodels, a diversity of additive and subtractive processes exists. Initially, subtractive processes such as computerized numerical control milling were predominant. Nowadays, additive technology has been adopted to manufacture three-dimensional customized physical implants and anatomical models. Commonly, there are four main medical applications of biomodels, namely preoperative planning and practicing; surgical training, surgical aid, and teaching purposes; design and construction for prosthetics and implantations; and the device testing and development of biomedical devices at both the macro- and microscale levels. The most traditional biomodels can be manufactured by following three main steps: radiological imaging, data processing, and rapid prototyping. It begins from the extraction of high-resolution multiplanar imaging data, such as MRI or CT. In the second step, a 3D reconstructed image is created using image processing software. The last step corresponds to the creation of models by using 3D printing machines. A new generation of biomodels is the organ-on-a-chip platforms, which are three-dimensional (3D) in vitro biomodels that mimic human organs and promise to improve drug delivery, personalized drug administration, and the early detection of different kinds of pathologies.

This Special Issue seeks to gather research papers and review articles focusing on novel manufacturing processes to obtain biomodels, new materials, applications and characterization of biomodels, and both experimental and numerical simulations of flows in biomedical devices.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. João Ribeiro
Dr. Graça Minas
Dr. Rui A. Lima
Dr. Diana Pinho
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Functional Biomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Manufacturing processes of biomodels
  • Additive manufacturing processes of biomodels
  • Flows in biomodels
  • Biomodels’ characterization
  • Biomodels’ applications
  • Biofabrication
  • Biosensors
  • Three-dimensional bioprinting
  • Fabrication of organ-on-a-chip platforms
  • Microfluidics in organ-on-a-chip platforms
  • Drug delivery in organ-on-a-chip platforms
  • Cell culture platforms
  • Numerical simulations in biomodels

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3311 KiB  
Article
Isolation and Detection of Exosomal Mir210 Using Carbon Nanomaterial-Coated Magnetic Beads
by Raja Chinnappan, Qasem Ramadan and Mohammed Zourob
J. Funct. Biomater. 2023, 14(9), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb14090441 - 25 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1001
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that are found in various cellular compartments and play an important role in regulating gene expression. Extracellular miRNAs, such as those found within extracellular vesicles such as exosomes are involved in cell-to-cell communication. The intercellular transfer of [...] Read more.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that are found in various cellular compartments and play an important role in regulating gene expression. Extracellular miRNAs, such as those found within extracellular vesicles such as exosomes are involved in cell-to-cell communication. The intercellular transfer of miRNAs has been implicated in various diseases’ pathogenesis including cancer and has been studied extensively as potential cancer biomarkers. However, the extraction of miRNA from exosomes is still a challenging task. The current nucleic acid extraction assays are expensive and labor-intensive. In this study, we demonstrated a microfluidic device for aptamer-based magnetic separation of the exosomes and subsequent detection of the miRNA using a fluorescence switching assay, which was enabled by carbon nanomaterials coated on magnetic beads. In the OFF state, the fluorophore-labelled cDNA is quenched using carbon nanomaterials. However, when the target miRNA210 is introduced, the cDNA detaches from the bead’s surface, which leads to an increase in the fluorescence intensity (ON state). This increment was found to be proportional to miRNA concentration within the dynamic range of 0–100 nM with a detection limit of 5 pM. The assay was validated with spiked miRNA using the standard RT-PCR method. No notable cross-reactivity with other closely related miRNAs was observed. The developed method can be utilized for the minimally invasive detection of cancer biomarkers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances and Challenges of Biomodels for Medical Applications)
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12 pages, 2236 KiB  
Article
A High-Fidelity Artificial Urological System for the Quantitative Assessment of Endoscopic Skills
by Do Yeon Kim, Xiangzhou Tan, Moonkwang Jeong, Dandan Li, Arkadiusz Miernik and Tian Qiu
J. Funct. Biomater. 2022, 13(4), 301; https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb13040301 - 16 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1496
Abstract
Minimally-invasive surgery is rapidly growing and has become a standard approach for many operations. However, it requires intensive practice to achieve competency. The current training often relies on animal organ models or physical organ phantoms, which do not offer realistic surgical scenes or [...] Read more.
Minimally-invasive surgery is rapidly growing and has become a standard approach for many operations. However, it requires intensive practice to achieve competency. The current training often relies on animal organ models or physical organ phantoms, which do not offer realistic surgical scenes or useful real-time feedback for surgeons to improve their skills. Furthermore, the objective quantitative assessment of endoscopic skills is also lacking. Here, we report a high-fidelity artificial urological system that allows realistic simulation of endourological procedures and offers a quantitative assessment of the surgical performance. The physical organ model was fabricated by 3D printing and two-step polymer molding with the use of human CT data. The system resembles the human upper urinary tract with a high-resolution anatomical shape and vascular patterns. During surgical simulation, endoscopic videos are acquired and analyzed to quantitatively evaluate performance skills by a customized computer algorithm. Experimental results show significant differences in the performance between professional surgeons and trainees. The surgical simulator offers a unique chance to train endourological procedures in a realistic and safe environment, and it may also lead to a quantitative standard to evaluate endoscopic skills. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances and Challenges of Biomodels for Medical Applications)
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