Student Research Highlights

 

Damian Kirchmajer wins People's Choice Prize at the UOW 3MT Final

Damian Kirchmajer, a PhD student in the School of Chemistry, won the People's Choice Prize for his presentation at the recent UOW 3 Minute Thesis Competition Final. Damian's presentation, titled "Gelatin for Tissue Engineering", outlined his research to develop a material called Gelatin to assist in the growth of thick tissues.

Tissue engineering is a relatively new field of medical science that aims to provide laboratory grown tissue and organs as a replacement for damaged and diseased ones in patients. While some success has already been had with thin tissues such as skin, thicker tissues and whole organs are still a challenge in this field because nutrients are unable to diffuse into the centre of engineered tissues. Damian is addressing this “thick-tissue problem” by developing a material called Gelapin which has a built-in supply network for nutrients made of capillary blood vessels.