August 5, 2015

Medical ‘biopen’ wins three-minute video Inspire Australia competition

Three UOW research videos placed among top ten competition entries.

After validating and tallying votes, Thinkable.org has announced that materials scientist Cathal O’Connell’s video about 3D bioprinting bodyparts has won the Inspire Australia competition hosted by Thinkable.org.

Dr O'Connell is part of a team of world class surgeons, biologists, biomedical engineers and 3D printing experts who are developing a handheld ‘Biopen’ that will enable surgeons to deliver a healing salve of stem cells to a wound, potentially accelerating healing.

"This new technology of "bioprinting" has the potential to revolutionise medicine-- one day, we want to use them to print organs and tissues for transplantation, using the patient's own cells. Though printed, functioning organs are probably many years away, other groundbreaking applications using bioprinting may be just around the corner," Dr O'Connell said.

Hydrogels are a class of materials often described as soft, squishy and wet. They consist mainly of water held together by molecular chains called polymers. Hydrogels also have properties close to tissue and can be designed to feel like skin.

ProjectGeldome aims to identify the right formulations to build a condom that is strong and flexible, provides superior protection, and that offers the potential for improved feel and sensation.

Dr Debbie Watson’s video highlighting the importance of medical research funding to support mid-career researchers placed ninth. Dr Watson conducts research in the field of transplantation and is currently an Honorary Fellow at the Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Molecular and Medical Bioscience.

The Australian Academy of Science competition, hosted by Thinkable.org, attracted entries by researchers at 28 Australian universities. Each three minute video was on average seen by 3000 people. The six-week competition attracted a total of 92,380 video views, 183 comments and 5649 votes.

The competition was open to mid-career researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Top ranking entries, as determined by public voting and a panel of judges, were awarded funding based on their proportional vote from a prize pool of $14,849.