The project

You’ll help create an injectable gel delivered through a very fine needle straight into a small cartilage defect. The gel forms in place within a couple of minutes, firms to cartilage-like stiffness, and crucially, is visible on a CT scan. That lets the surgeon see it on the day, confirm placement, and check it again soon after. The aim is simple: restore local load-bearing, slow spread of damage, and help people stay active.

What you’ll work on

• Formulations that work in theatre. Design gels that inject easily through needles finer than 25-gauge, set within 30–180 seconds at body temperature, and keep strength after sterilisation and ageing.
• Why the material behaves as it does. Use imaging and spectroscopy to link the gel’s microscopic structure to how it injects, sets, and shows on scans.
• Make it show up clearly on scans. Add safe iodine-based contrast and set clear visibility targets on CT so surgeons can prove placement on the table and at early follow-up.
• Prove it helps tissue. In realistic lab models (porcine cartilage), measure how much the repair improves local stiffness and whether the material stays put under repeated loading; run standard cell-safety and extractables tests.
• Get it ready for the real world. Write simple operating-room steps for delivery and follow-up, map the UK/EU/US regulatory route, shape the business model and go-to-market plan, and speak with 25+ clinicians and other stakeholders.

The project

You’ll help create an injectable gel delivered through a very fine needle straight into a small cartilage defect. The gel forms in place within a couple of minutes, firms to cartilage-like stiffness, and crucially, is visible on a CT scan. That lets the surgeon see it on the day, confirm placement, and check it again soon after. The aim is simple: restore local load-bearing, slow spread of damage, and help people stay active.

What you’ll work on

• Formulations that work in theatre. Design gels that inject easily through needles finer than 25-gauge, set within 30–180 seconds at body temperature, and keep strength after sterilisation and ageing.
• Why the material behaves as it does. Use imaging and spectroscopy to link the gel’s microscopic structure to how it injects, sets, and shows on scans.
• Make it show up clearly on scans. Add safe iodine-based contrast and set clear visibility targets on CT so surgeons can prove placement on the table and at early follow-up.
• Prove it helps tissue. In realistic lab models (porcine cartilage), measure how much the repair improves local stiffness and whether the material stays put under repeated loading; run standard cell-safety and extractables tests.
• Get it ready for the real world. Write simple operating-room steps for delivery and follow-up, map the UK/EU/US regulatory route, shape the business model and go-to-market plan, and speak with 25+ clinicians and other stakeholders.