Scaffolding bone regeneration

-Koh Eng Beng

UNSIGHTLY appearance that results from screwing titanium cover on skull for fracture repair will soon be a thing of the past with the creation of the bioresorbable scaffolds. A brainchild of Assoc Prof Lim Thiam Chye, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Senior Consultant at NUH, the scaffolds promote “bony integration” and do not require any screwing, resulting in a cosmetically-pleasing appearance for patients.

BONY INTEGRATION: Assoc Prof Lim Thiam Chye, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Senior Consultant at NUH, at the conference.

The breakthrough was showcased to close to 100 clinicians, scientists and engineers from 10 countries, at the International Conference on Advances in Bioresorbable Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering (5-6 Jan).

Another NUS breakthrough featured was the tooth scaffold which can restore the loss of bone at the root after a tooth extraction. The product is jointly developed by Prof Teoh Swee Hin, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and researchers from National Dental Centre.

In another collaboration, NUS researchers and Prof Karl-Heinz Schuckert, Institute of Innovative Oral Surgery and Medicine, Centre for Tissue Engineering, Germany, successfully used a triangle 3-D scaffold along with growth factors to restore the lower jaw of a patient. Prior to the treatment, the severely-infected jaw was about to give way and implant was impossible.

The conference is jointly organised by the NUS Centre for Biomedical Materials Applications and Technology (BIOMAT) and Osteopore International, an NUS spin-off, to promote collaboration and catalyse breakthroughs in medical science.

Said Prof Teoh, Director of BIOMAT: “Your mind is like a parachute, it works best when open. I hope all of us here would be open-minded because many problems cannot be solved unless looked from another perspective.”

Sleek presentation at NUS for Singapore’s bid for YOG

IF Singapore wins the bid to hold the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010, NUS would have played an unseen yet vital role in securing the hosting rights.

The University hosted Singapore’s final presentation bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) via videoconference (13 Dec 2007), facilitated by the Centre for Instructional Technology (CIT) and the Office of Estate and Development (OED). CIT provided video crew and conferencing support while OED handled logistics and provided additional manpower.

Mr Niam Chiang Meng, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and Mr Ng Ser Miang, Vice President of the Singapore National Olympic Committee (SNOC) and IOC Executive Board Member led the panel. The Singapore team involved key players from SNOC and MCYS including Minister for Defence Mr Teo Chee Hean, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Mr Vivian Balakrishnan and MCYS Parliamentary Secretary Mr Teo Ser Luck. Professor Yong Kwet Yew, Vice President (Campus Infrastructure) was also on the panel.

“The challenge was in the high-profile nature of the meeting. Due to the stakes involved, we could not afford any hiccups. Here, our experience with the APRU Special Presidents’ Meeting in 2002, which required a technically demanding multi-point linkup, put us in good stead,” said Mr Lim Sew Hoo, CIT.

To ensure an uninterrupted meeting, CIT prepared backups for every piece of equipment. The videoconferencing team also performed rehearsal link-ups and audio-visual quality tests with the IOC before the day. Their meticulous preparation and execution of the videoconference bears testament to the conviction that Singapore is ready to host the Youth Olympic Games.

– Contributed by Kenneth Gerard Pinto, CIT