Developing tools to test dissolvable stents

Towards controlling the mechanical performance of polymeric bioresorbable vascular scaffold during biodegradation (Miss Raasti Naseem)

Supervised by engineering lecturer Dr Liguo Zhao, the PhD student will study bioresorbable stents, which will be used to open blocked blood vessels and then dissolve when no longer needed. Stents are routinely used to re-open blocked coronary arteries that cause a heart attack. Since they were first used in 1986, stents have significantly improved in design and material, although they still carry complications and risks, including thrombosis. Bioresorbable stents were developed to overcome the risk of thrombosis, they are designed to open and support the vessel until it has adapted to support itself. After a period of time the stent dissolves, leaving behind an intact, clear vessel. To fully evaluate bioresorbable stents, the PhD student will need to assess the stent’s strength, flexibility and degradation properties. In this project, the student will use a combined experimental and computational approach to understand how bioresorbable stents degrade. The mechanical performance of new stent prototypes and commercial stents will also be compared. This research will develop tools to understand and evaluate the mechanical performance of bioresorbable polymeric stents. By providing important guidance for optimising strength and flexibility, these findings could help researchers to develop new stent technologies.