Phygital Human Bone

Student/s

Nim Carbonell, Gerard Estrada, Maria Jesús de Pouplana, Pau Daura, Júlia Guri

Tutored by

Juan Crespo, PhD Xavier Jordana, PhD, Marco Gesualdo, Marta Otero, PhD

Studies Undergraduate Degree in Industrial Design Engineering

Awards

ei! Award

Topic Care Health

“Phygital Human Bone” is a pioneering research project by Elisava and UVic-UCC that proposes the creation of a phygital (physical and digital) synthetic bone model that uses an innovative biomimetic design and a 3D bioprinting technique to replicate the properties of the human femur. Its aim is to replicate its internal microarchitecture, so that the biomechanical properties of the bone can be synthetically simulated and, therefore, fracture patterns can be studied, a goal that has never been achieved before despite the existence of other similar studies in this field. The result is a synthetic model capable of recreating the properties of a biological tissue (bone tissue).

This precise recreation achieved by “Phygital Human Bone” is of great interest, both for controlled trials and for experimental forensic or biomechanical studies, as it allows the controlled reproduction of human bone and the study of different scenarios that were impossible to address until now, due to ethical, legal or availability issues.

Beyond its object of study and its innovative results, the project is also relevant because, for the first time, it has been developed in a coordinated way by students from two of the four campuses of the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia (UVic -UCC): UElisava and UVic. They are, in particular, four students of the Undergraduate Degree in Industrial Design Engineering at UElisava, Nim Carbonell, Gerard Estrada, María Jesús de Pouplana and Pau Daura, and a student of the degree in Biotechnology at the UVic Campus, Júlia Guri. All of them have worked together on their respective final degree projects, combining different disciplines in a single project.

The project was carried out within the research area on bone remodelling of the Tissue Repair and Regeneration Research Group (TR2Lab – Tissue Repair and Regeneration Laboratory) at UVic-UCC, and was directed by PhD Juan Crespo, researcher and professor at Elisava, and PhD Xavier Jordana, researcher and professor at the UAB, both members of TR2Lab. Academic tutors were Professor Marco Gesualdo, from Elisava, and PhD Marta Otero, from UVic, director of TR2Lab.