Gemma Mestres

Uppsala University

External website

gemma.mestres@angstrom.uu.se

Keywords

Biomaterials, Biomaterials-on-Chip, Bone cement, Bone regeneration, Ceramics, Inflammation, Microfabrication, Microfluidics

Key publications

Raouf Atif A, Pujari-Palmer M, Tenje M, Mestres G. A microfluidics-based method for culturing osteoblasts on biomimetic hydroxyapatite. Acta Biomaterialia (2021). In Press.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.03.046

Carter SD, Barbe L, Tenje M, G. Mestres. Exploring microfluidics as a tool to evaluate the biological properties of a titanium alloy under dynamic conditions. Biomaterials Science 8 (2020) 6309-6321.
DOI: 10.1039/D0BM00964D

Kadekar S, Laurent B, Stoddart M, Varghese O.M., Tenje M, Mestres G. Effect of the addition frequency of 5-azacytidine in both micro- and macroscale cultures. Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering 14 (2020) 121-130.
DOI: 10.1007/s12195-020-00654-9

Carter SSD, Atif AR, Kadekar S, Lanekoff I, Engqvist H, Varghese OP, Tenje M, Mestres G. PDMS leaching and its implications for on-chip studies focusing on bone regeneration applications. Organs-on-a-Chip 2 (2020) 100004.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ooc.2020.100004

Mestres G, Espanol M, Xia W, Persson C, Ginebra MP, Karlsson Ott M. Inflammatory response to nano- and microstructured hydroxyapatite. PLOS ONE 10 (2015) e0120381.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120381

Mestres G, Santos CF, Engman L, Persson C, Karlsson Ott M. Scavenging effect of Trolox released from brushite cements. Acta Biomaterialia 11 (2015) 459-466.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2014.09.007

Mestres G, Le-Van C, Ginebra MP. Silicon-stabilized a-tricalcium phosphate and its use in a calcium phosphate cement: characterization and cell response. Acta Biomaterialia 8 (2012) 1169-1179.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2011.11.021

Mestres G, Ginebra MP. Novel magnesium phosphate cements with high early strength and antibacterial properties. Acta Biomaterialia 7 (2011) 1853–1861.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2010.12.008

SciLifeLab / Contact / Gemma Mestres

Research interests

The approach to develop bone repair biomaterials (e.g. dental implants or synthetic bone grafts) has been redefined in the last decades. The trend has been to move from an engineering design that would simply restore the mechanical properties of bone, to biomaterials that are able to replicate to a higher extent the physico-chemical and biological characteristics of bone, enhancing bone regeneration. Despite the immense biomaterial developments over the years, a small portion of them have become a clinical product. This can indirectly be attributed to the lack of correlation between the consecutive methods used to assess the biological properties of biomaterials, namely cell cultures (in vitro), animal testing (in vivo) and clinical trials (with volunteer patients). This leads to an iterative, long and often prohibitively expensive process.

The goal of my research group is to develop a new research tool to bridge the gap between in vitro and in vivostudies, which will potentially increase the biomaterials’ success rate in clinical trials. To achieve this, I integrate bone repair biomaterials in microfluidic platforms, where I recreate the biological and physical stimuli upon implantation. This test method will lead to reliable and time- and cost-effective studies, hence stimulating the translation of biomaterials to the market.

Our projects are funded by grants from the Swedish research councils (Vetenskapsrådet and Formas), Göran Gustafsson’s Foundation, STINT and VINNOVA.

Group members

Gemma Mestres, PI
Sarah-Sophia Carter, PhD student
Abdul Raouf Atif, PhD student
Maryam Shojaee, guest PhD student
Hanlu Deng, MSc student

Contact

E-mail: Gemma.Mestres@angstrom.uu.se
Telephone: 018-471 3235