
Porous materials are omnipresent and some of the unseemingly solid materials in nature and around us are porous at sub-micron scale. Nature creates some of the most elegant and functional porous materials like bones, diatom silica shells and opals.
The laboratory for advanced porous nano-biomaterials is inspired by natural porous materials and focuses on development of advanced porous materials and their composites for medical applications. We utilise unique materials properties of a range of different porous materials for creating advanced drug delivery platforms, surfaces and scaffolds for regenerative medicine, and sensing tools that exploit unique optical and electrical properties of our porous materials.
Our research has a broader focus in development of new porous materials and composites, and their use in various medical applications. Some of the main research focuses of the group are:
The group brings together a specialised research expertise to this field with a range of highly sophisticated porous materials fabrication and biological testing methods. Some of the key techniques, tools and facilities include:
Top: Size and structure of chemically and physically modified indocyanine green (ICG) mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs). Bottom: Photoacoustic imaging using ICG loaded MSNs and corresponding controls.
Scaffolds and tissue engineering
Top: Porous silicon particles polymeric nanofibers for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Bottom: Cells grown on a (a-c) polymer film and (b-d) directionally aligned porous silicon/polymer nanofibers that show ability to guide cellular structure for desired regenerative outcome.
3D printed titanium implant surface with porous titanium dioxide layer on top shown on the right.
Sensing
Porous silicon photonic crystal sensor embedded into a needleless IV catheter hub for online sterilisation sensing. Top: process of sensor embedding and bottom shows sensing performance of the two types of sensors.