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Bioengineering has excellent links with a broad range of industrial and clinical partners as well as other key stake holders. These provide important collaborative links supporting research and development activity within the institute.

Barts and the Royal London NHS Trust

Bioengineering has strong clinical links through Barts and the Royal London NHS Trust. This provides an essential clinical perspective and expertise as well as access to a cohort of approximately 6 million patients.

Examples of Industrial Bioengineering Research

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Image of bone graft substitute material, Actifuse, used in spinal surgery.
 

Bone Graft Substitute Materials

Research undertaken at Queen Mary has resulted in the development of a raft of bioactive synthetic bone graft substitute materials with clinically proven capacity to support the regeneration of new bone.

This world-leading research has resulted in two spin-out companies, ApaTech (founded in 2000, acquired in 2010 by Baxter International) and Progentix Orthobiology (founded in 2004, Technology acquired by NuVasive Inc. in 2009)

These novel materials represent a significant fraction of the global market due to their ability to facilitate faster recovery for the patient while negating the need for these patients to undergo a second operative procedure to extract donor bone graft, risking the associated additional complications of infection and post-operative pain.

Together, these bioactive bone graft substitute materials have now been used to treat 100’s of thousands of patients in over 30 countries.

Dr Karin Hing has been heavily involved in the research and the development of ApaTech (see the short film - right). In recognition of her research Dr Hing has been awarded the prestigious Kroll Medal and Prize from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal (she's also appeared on the BBC TV - Bang Goes the Theory!).

Tooth Pastes to Remineralize Teeth and Fight Caries

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Examples of BioMim™ toothpaste developed by scientists and bioengineers at Queen Mary.
An interdisciplinary team of scientists from The Institute of Dentistry and the School of Engineering and Materials at Queen Mary, have developed novel re-mineralising toothpastes to treat dentine hypersensitivity and protect teeth from tooth decay.

Led by internationally renowned glass scientist, Prof Robert Hill, materials scientists and bioengineers have optimised and patented a series of glass formulations that can be incorporated as micron-scale particles into toothpastes where they dissolve in saliva to release calcium, phosphate and fluorine ions in the correct proportions for up to 12 hours to form hydroxycarbonate-apatite or more acid resistant fluorapatite to repair eroded enamel and block any open dentine tubules that may be responsible for sensitivity to exposure hot and cold drinks and food.

This underpinning research has led to the spin-out of Biomin Technologies Ltd., and the successful commercialisation of BioMin™ fluorine free and fluorine containing toothpastes which are on sale in the UK, Germany, Australia, China and India.