Large bone defects are a major clinical and socioeconomic problem, as they negatively impact patients’ quality of life. Osteogenesis and vascularization are coupled during bone development and growth. In the bone marrow, endothelial progenitor cells form an osteoblast-vascular niche by close proximity to osteoprogenitor cells. Several studies have investigated the combined effect of osteogenic and angiogenic growth factors on differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. However, the integration of a fully functional vascular network inside bone grafts remains a biological and engineering challenge. The general objective of V-BONE is to develop a multifunctional platform including (1) a porous scaffold frame, (2) angiogenic and osteogenic growth factors incorporated in hydrogel microspheres, and (3) mesenchymal stem cells from the bone marrow and Wharton’s jelly/or endothelium, to crosstalk in co-culture and promote the reconstruction of vascularized bone, which is crucial to treat large bone defects. To achieve this breakthrough in the field of tissue-engineered vascularized bone, in V-BONE we propose (i) to design, manufacture and characterize channeled porous scaffold frames based on natural and synthetic biomaterials, with tunable chemical, mechanical and architectural properties, and hydrogel microspheres for the encapsulation of angiogenic and osteogenic growth factors, inserted into the porous scaffold frame; (ii) to evaluate the angiogenic and osteogenic effectiveness in vitro in cell culture, and in vivo in mice. The multifunctional scaffold platform is expected to control the spatiotemporal release of growth factors and paracrine signaling factors that stimulate specific mesenchymal stem cell populations infiltrated inside the pores of the scaffold in co-culture, under dynamic conditions in a bioreactor. The cell-scaffold constructs will be translated to a GMP, high-scale production level.

SELFNANOPUD aims at developing a new technology for the production of waterborne polyurethane dispersions for the creation of a new generation of coatings with self-healing properties. The design, synthesis and characterization of the innovative dispersions and their coatings will be realized, as well as the optimization of their properties and the scaling-up of their production at semi-industrial scale.

In recent years, self-healing coatings have been the subject of increasing research interest. The ability of such coatings to self-repair local damages caused by external forces is an important factor which contributes to their attractiveness and increasing demand. The process of self-healing of polymers is based on the dispersion of a catalyst and monomer-containing microcapsules into the polymeric matrix. Sufficiently large external stresses cause rupture of the microcapsules, releasing the monomer which diffuses through the polymer and eventually reaches a catalyst particle, causing the start of the polymerization reaction. The size and mechanical characteristics of the microcapsules constitute critical elements in controlling the self-healing process.

The successful implementation of the project will contribute to the replacement of solvent based with water based products with significant positive implications on the competitiveness and improvements in the production processes in terms of compliance with the environmental and technological requirements.

POLYGRAPH aims in developing innovative polymer nanohybrids that consist of graphite oxide (GO) and / or nanoadditives based on graphene. It targets the correlation of the final macroscopic (thermal, mechanical, rheological) properties of the nanohybrids with the microscopic structure, the morhology and the chain conformations in systems with different polymer / surface interactions and / or different degree of chain confinement.