Electrospinning for healthcare: recent advancements

Electrospinning is a simple route to generate polymer-based fibres with diameters on the nano- to micron-scale. It has been very widely explored in biomedical science for applications including drug delivery systems, diagnostic imaging, theranostics, and tissue engineering. This extensive literature...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of materials chemistry. B, Materials for biology and medicine Vol. 9; no. 4; pp. 939 - 951
Main Authors Dziemidowicz, Karolina, Sang, Qingqing, Wu, Jinglei, Zhang, Ziwei, Zhou, Fenglei, Lagaron, Jose M, Mo, Xiumei, Parker, Geoff J. M, Yu, Deng-Guang, Zhu, Li-Min, Williams, Gareth R
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Royal Society of Chemistry 28.01.2021
Subjects
Biomedical materials
Delivery of Health Care
Diagnostic software
Diagnostic systems
Drug delivery
Drug delivery systems
Electrochemical Techniques
Electrospinning
Fibers
Humans
Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles - chemistry
Particle Size
Polymers
Precision medicine
Surface Properties
Tissue engineering
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Electrospinning is a simple route to generate polymer-based fibres with diameters on the nano- to micron-scale. It has been very widely explored in biomedical science for applications including drug delivery systems, diagnostic imaging, theranostics, and tissue engineering. This extensive literature reveals that a diverse range of functional components including small molecule drugs, biologics, and nanoparticles can be incorporated into electrospun fibres, and it is possible to prepare materials with complex compartmentalised architectures. This perspective article briefly introduces the electrospinning technique before considering its potential applications in biomedicine. Particular attention is paid to the translation of electrospinning to the clinic, including the need to produce materials at large scale and the requirement to do so under Good Manufacturing Practice conditions. We finish with a summary of the key current challenges and future perspectives. This perspective explores recent developments and innovations in the electrospinning technique and their potential applications in biomedicine.
Bibliography:Jinglei Wu received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and Southwestern Medical Center joint program in 2017. He then worked as a scientist in the biotech company Progenitec Inc., before joining the Department of Bioengineering at Donghua University as a lecturer in 2018. His research interests focus on naturally-derived materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.
Qingqing works as a medical technician at Ruijin Hospital, which is affiliated to the Medical College of Shanghai Jiaotong University. She graduated with an MSc from the College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Donghua University in 2018. Her research interests include coaxial electrospinning, anti-cancer biomaterials, and bioinformatics in cancer research.
Ziwei received her BS degree (2012) in pharmaceutical science and MS degree (2014) in pharmaceutical analysis from Peking University. She then obtained an MSc degree in drug discovery and development at UCL in 2017. She is now a third year PhD student at the UCL School of Pharmacy working in Gareth's group. Her research interests focus on hybrids of inorganic and polymer materials for MRI-based theranostics.
Gareth is Professor of Pharmaceutical Materials Science and Head of Pharmaceutics in the UCL School of Pharmacy. He was educated at the University of Oxford, and then worked in science programme management and as a post-doctoral researcher before obtaining his first independent academic appointment at London Metropolitan University in 2010. He moved to UCL in 2012 as a lecturer, and was promoted to associate professor in 2016 and full professor in 2020. Gareth's research interests focus on the use of inorganic and polymer-based nanomaterials in biomedicine, as well as in the development of advanced analytical techniques.
Fenglei is a senior research fellow at UCL, working in the Centre for Medical Image Computing and UCL School of Pharmacy. Fenglei obtained his BSc and MSc from Qingdao University (China) and his PhD from the University of Manchester. From 2010 to 2019, Fenglei worked as a research associate and then a research fellow in the Manchester Centre for Imaging Sciences. He has general research interests in electrohydrodynamics and polymer materials. In the past ten years, Fenglei has participated in projects funded by the EU, EPSRC and CRUK, in which he pioneered the development of tissue-mimicking phantoms for diffusion MRI. These phantoms have won recognition in the MR community and have been used in ten world-leading university research groups.
Karolina is a final year PhD researcher on the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicines (UCL School of Pharmacy). She obtained her MPharm degree from King's College London in 2015. During her undergraduate studies, Karolina undertook her MPharm dissertation at Utrecht University (Pharmaceutics Department), working on drug-eluting bronchotracheal stents. She is a practising pharmacist and completed her pre-registration training at AstraZeneca (Macclesfield, UK). Her research focuses on the development of polymer-based biomaterials for enhancement of protein drug delivery and immunotherapy.
ISSN:2050-750X
2050-7518
DOI:10.1039/d0tb02124e