From left to right: Mr Bjorn Bartolo (Technoline Ltd.); Prof. Kevin Cassar (Competition judge, Consultant vascular surgeon, Clinical lead Vascular Surgery, Mater Dei Hospital); Mr Keith Sammut (BioSA researcher from Mater Dei Hospital); Mr Thomas Azzopardi (Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon, Orthopaedic postgraduate training coordinator, Mater Dei Hospital); and Prof. Stephen Fava (Competition judge, consultant Physician and Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Mater Dei Hospital).
A group of researchers in a joint collaboration between the University of Malta and Mater Dei Hospital, is behind the development of a novel biodegradable metallic bone scaffold intended to treat patients with bone defects. A patent of this invention has been filed. This research is part of the MCST-funded BioSA project (Biodegradable Iron for Orthopaedic Scaffold Applications).
Biodegradable bone scaffolds are an exciting new avenue in the field of tissue regeneration. They are intended to temporarily replace segments of missing bone, providing temporary structural support, as well as a mesh for the host tissue to grow back through and eventually replace.
On 16 October 2021, two members of the BioSA team, Mr Luke Saliba and Mr Keith Sammut, presented their research work at the 10th Annual Association of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeons of Malta () Scientific Meeting. The AOTSM Scientific Meeting is an annual national orthopaedic conference, during which several papers are presented to an audience and a panel of judges, who eventually award a prize for the best paper. The award was sponsored by Technoline Ltd.
Mr Keith Sammut won first prize out of 16 papers for his work on In-vitro anti-biofilm properties of novel biodegradable silver-enhanced iron-manganese bone scaffolds. Mr Keith Sammut is a Higher Specialist Trainee in Orthopaedic Surgery at Mater Dei Hospital, and is reading for a Master of Science in Molecular and Cell Biology (by Part-Time Research) degree and is supervised by Prof. Pierre Schembri Wismayer, Prof. Ing. Joseph Buhagiar and Prof. Vasilis Valdramidis. Technological support is being provided by Dr Foteini Pavli and Ms Christabelle Tonna. Mr Ryan Giordmaina and Mr Ray Gatt of the Department of Orthopaedics, Trauma & Sports Medicine of Mater Dei Hospital are part of the BioSA team and are providing application support.
BioSA is financed by the , for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the FUSION: R&I Technology Development Programme. (BioSA R&I-2017-037T).
Mr Keith Sammut won first prize out of 16 papers for his work on In-vitro anti-biofilm properties of novel biodegradable silver-enhanced iron-manganese bone scaffolds. Mr Keith Sammut is a Higher Specialist Trainee in Orthopaedic Surgery at Mater Dei Hospital, and is reading for a Master of Science in Molecular and Cell Biology (by Part-Time Research) degree and is supervised by Prof. Pierre Schembri Wismayer, Prof. Ing. Joseph Buhagiar and Prof. Vasilis Valdramidis. Technological support is being provided by Dr Foteini Pavli and Ms Christabelle Tonna. Mr Ryan Giordmaina and Mr Ray Gatt of the Department of Orthopaedics, Trauma & Sports Medicine of Mater Dei Hospital are part of the BioSA team and are providing application support.
BioSA is financed by the , for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the FUSION: R&I Technology Development Programme. (BioSA R&I-2017-037T).
