Due to the rapidly ageing population and the increasing incidence of diabetes, circulatory disorders and obesity, the number of skin wounds has increased tremendously worldwide. Current treatment approaches to support wound healing include the use of wound dressings, antiseptic agents or growth factors. Although innovative technologies to accelerate tissue regeneration are becoming increasingly important, they are limited by restricted availability or complex manufacturing processes. Wound healing therefore remains a major challenge in regenerative medicine. Prof Dr Dorothea Brüggemann's research group is working on this topic in a DFG research project at Hochschule Bremen – City University of Applied Sciences (HSB). Her PhD student Titinun Nuntapramote was recently honoured with a poster prize at the annual conference of the German Society for Biomaterials in Berlin. As award money the young scientist receives 300 euros.
“When developing new skin models, it is particularly important to mimic the layered architecture of natural skin with its variable porosity and thickness,“ explain Titinun Nuntapramote and Dorothea Brüggemann. At the same time, skin substitute materials must support the growth of different cell types by binding to various biomolecules. Despite extensive research in this field, there are still no suitable multilayer protein scaffolds that are suitable as skin substitutes. “The aim of our project is therefore to produce bio-inspired biomaterials with a new layered design that consist of the body's own proteins fibrinogen and collagen and can be seeded with cells.“
“In my work, I show how nanofibres are produced from collagen and fibrinogen through self-assembly and how mechanically stable the layered scaffolds are,“ explains the 29-year-old young scientist. He analysed the nanostructure of the protein scaffolds using a scanning electron microscope. Titinun Nuntapramote has shown that individual protein fibres have a diameter of around 100 nanometres (nm), which corresponds to one thousandth of the thickness of a human hair. “Our next goal is to use these new protein scaffolds in cell culture studies to investigate their biocompatibility so that they can be further developed for regenerative medicine,“ says Dorothea Brüggemann. “If we succeed in producing layered protein scaffolds with sufficient thickness, these new biomaterials could support wound healing in the future by growing into the skin tissue.“
Commenting on his award, Titinun Nuntapramote says: “It feels great when someone in the same field recognises and understands your work. I am very happy about this poster award!“
Titinun Nuntapramote has been doing his doctorate at the HSB under Dorothea Brüggemann since September 2023. His PhD topic is: „Layered protein fibre scaffolds for skin tissue engineering“. He previously completed his Master's degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Bremen. During this time, he already worked as a student assistant for Dorothea Brüggemann, who researched and taught there before joining the HSB.
