Professor Serena Best

I direct the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials together with Prof Ruth Cameron. My research aims to expand the range and performance of bioactive scaffolds in clinical applications.

We aim to develop composites with properties tailored to their specific application. The organic matrices comprise a range of biodegradable polymers. The fillers include bioactive ceramics, glasses and glass ceramics. Filler particles with a variety of morphologies and dimensions are being investigated along with the refinement of techniques to produce porous structures over a range of different densities and with controlled pore shape and size.

The design of porous architectures with controlled mechanical properties and surface chemistries is essential to optimise the repair and reconstruction soft tissues. Applications for collagen-GAG based scaffolds include dental materials, heart tissue repair and the production of platelets. We are seeking to gain fundamental understanding of the effects of production parameters and the effects of biochemical surface modification on the biological mechanisms of action, to produce tailor-made three dimensional porous structures.