[PhD by Enterprise FSE] Injectable radiopaque self-assembling hydrogels for biomedical applications

About the Project

Osteoarthritis is common and expensive to treat. By the time people reach end-stage disease, joint replacement is often the only option. We want to act earlier, when damage is still small and focused, so joints keep working for longer and major surgery is delayed.

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.