Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne

Ecole Polytechnique Féderale De Lausanne (epfl)

Thomas Braschler

Philippe Renaud

Hubert Van Den Bergh

Amélie Barbara Hildegarde Béduer

Giorgio Pietramaggiori

Saja Scherer

Yann Barrandon

François Majo

Pontus Linderholm

Nicolas Demierre

Urban Seger

Amélie Béduer

Julien Graber

Amélie Barbara Hildegarde BÉDUER

Maïa Caillier

The invention relates to a scaffold material comprising a plurality of particles of a highly porous polymeric material, characterized in that said scaffold material becomes a shapeable paste once hydrated. The specific features of the particle material impart a special behavior to the scaffold, which can be easily shaped and even highly reversibly compressed, so that in certain aspects it can, if needed, be injected, said capacity to be shaped being maintained over a high range of hydration conditions. A particular aspect of the invention relates, therefore, to the use of such scaffold material for the manufacturing of shapeable body implants, such as breast implants, to the shapeable body implants themselves as well as to non-invasive methods for using thereof in creating or reconstructing a three-dimensional volume in a subject's body part.

Shapeable scaffold material and uses thereof

A method of producing a cryogel-based multicompartment 3D scaffold is herein disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: a) providing a first frozen polymeric layer on a refrigerated support kept at subzero temperature; b) providing subsequent polymeric layers to obtain a stack of polymeric layers by possibly modulating the subzero temperature of the refrigerated support; c) optionally incubating the final polymeric structure at subzero temperature; and d) placing the produced cryogel at a temperature above 0&#xb0; C., the method being characterized in that each subsequent layer i) is deposited on the previous one after freezing of this latter; ii) is deposited on the previous one before the complete polymerization of this latter; and iii) is deposited with a temperature higher than the freezing temperature of the previously deposited layer. Cryogel scaffolds obtained from the method of the invention are also disclosed.

Cryogel 3D scaffolds and methods for producing thereof

The particle () is suitable for the manufacture of an implantable soft tissue engineering material and comprises: a three-dimensionally warped and branched sheet () where (i) the three-dimensionally warped and branched sheet () is made from a biocompatible material having a Young's modulus of 1 kPa to 1 GPa; (ii) the three-dimensionally warped and branched sheet () has an irregular shape which is encompassed in a virtual three-dimensional envelope () having a volume V; (iii) the three-dimensionally warped and branched sheet () has a mean sheet thickness T; iv) the three-dimensionally warped and branched sheet () has a volume V; (v) the particle () has a Young's modulus of 100 Pa to 15 kPa; and (vi) the particle () further comprises a number of protrusions where the three-dimensionally warped and branched sheet () reaches the envelope (); (vii) the particle () has a number of interconnected channel-type conduits () defined by the branching of the sheet () and/or by voids in the sheet (); and (viii) where the conduits () have (a) a mean diameter D; and (b) an anisotropicity index of 1.01 to 5.00.

Particle suitable for the manufacture of an implantable soft tissue engineering material

The invention relates to a contact lens for use in the treatment of ocular inflammatory pathologies. The contact lens comprises a soft porous material coupled, in certain embodiments, with detoxifying agents. Said material and/or agents contact and neutralize inflammatory mediators present in the tear fluid of ocular pathologies patients. The nature and architecture of the soft porous material allows a greater contact area between the material itself and/or detoxifying agents with inflammatory mediators, in view of the reversible compression of the soft material that allows greater lachrymal fluid turnover and fluid exchange within the contact lens upon e.g. blinking.

Ophthalmic contact lens with compressible affinity matrix

Microfluidic system comprising a space for containing a liquid and at least one lateral chamber in communication with said space, said lateral chamber containing a metal electrode. The lateral chamber and the space are designed to be filled by the same or different liquid when the system is active.

Apparatus for manipulating, modifying and characterizing particles in a micro channel

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Chavannes-Renens, Switzerland

Thomas Braschler