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Research Interests

Additive Manufacturing (SLM, FDM, ink-extrusion, bioprinting, 4D printing)
Porous biomaterials (biodegradable metals, meta-biomaterials)
Biomechanics
Bioelectronics
Machine learning

Additive manufacturing

The advent of and recent progress in additive manufacturing (AM) technique has provided an unprecedented opportunity to tackle the dilemma of free-form design and manufacturing feasibility encountered in fabricating an ideal porous metallic biomaterial. Up until now, four main types of metal AM techniques, namely directed energy deposition (DED), powder bed fusion (PBF), binder jetting (BJ), and binder extrusion have been applied to the fabrication of AM porous implants. DED and PBF are considered to be direct AM metal printing techniques, while BJ and binder extrusion needs post-AM treatment, typically debinding and sintering. As the state-of-art AM metals still have some internal defects, AM process optimization and post-AM treatment, are important to improve the mechanical properties of AM porous metals.

10.1016/j.actbio.2017.12.008;                     10.1016/j.actbio.2018.07.011;                     10.1016/j.actbio.2019.10.034;                    10.1016/j.actbio.2018.10.043;                           10.1016/j.matdes.2017.08.046

Porous biomaterials

It is well known that the human bone has a highly hierarchical structure at different length scales, including macroscale, microscale, sub-microscale, nanoscale, and sub-nanoscale. At the macroscale level, bone can be classified as being either cortical or trabecular with varied porosities and mechanical properties. To better mimic the mechanical properties and functionalities of the human bone, ideal bone substitutes need to possess bone-mimicking geometries. Moreover, an appropriate design of a porous metallic biomaterial requires careful selection of pore shape, pore size, and porosity.

10.1039/C9BM01904A;                               10.1016/j.actbio.2019.07.013;                    10.1016/j.jmbbm.2017.12.029;

Meta-biomaterials

Meta-biomaterials are, in principle, multi-physics metamaterials, offering unique combinations of topological (e.g. curvature), mechanical, mass transport (e.g. permeability, diffusivity), and biological properties. Both individual properties and their combinations may be unique and not readily available elsewhere. In the recent years, it has been shown that unprecedented levels of bone-mimicking properties or implants with potentially superior performance, could be created by application of rational design principles and through specific types of topological designs. For example, deployable meta-implants can be developed through origami and kirigami techniques that aim to minimize the invasiveness of orthopaedic surgeries by allowing for changes in their shape and size that are triggered by an external stimulus.

10.1016/j.matdes.2020.108624;   10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.034057

Biomechanics

AM biodegradable porous metallic bone implants need to provide sufficient mechanical support during the bone healing process, which is often taken to mean that they should exhibit bone-mimicking mechanical properties. In addition to quasi-static mechanical properties, the fatigue behavior of AM biodegradable porous metals is of particular importance, as load-bearing orthopedic implants experience millions of loading cycles per year. AM porous implants should be designed not only with the aim of achieving initially bone-mimicking mechanical properties but also with a proper consideration of how those properties change with time as the biodegradation and bone regeneration processes progress.

10.1016/j.actbio.2020.02.001;                10.1016/j.addma.2019.05.013;                  10.1016/j.corsci.2019.05.003;                       10.1016/j.actbio.2017.11.014