Laura Poole-Warren
  1. Current research activities

    2. My main field of research is in polymeric biomaterials development and evaluation of cell and tissue interactions with both materials and medical devices. Currently, I have active research programs directed at development of novel materials and approaches for cardiovascular applications, wound healing and nerve repair funded from government sources (ARC), the University and industry. I also have an active research program on cardiovascular remodelling, specifically focussing on remodelling in response to mechanical stress such as that conferred by endovascular grafts and stents. I have 7 PhD students funded by APA, UPRS and Faculty of Engineering awards working in these areas, 1 post-doctoral fellow conducting research on neural interfaces, a research assistant on the nerve repair project and several Masters and honours students (currently 1 masters and 4 honours).

    My coursework teaching is detailed below (see 5.) however, I have responsibility for courses in biomaterial-tissue interactions, biological and synthetic polymers, tissue engineering and a course on commercialisation and innovation. I also teach in introductory biomedical engineering courses to our first years (approx 100 students).

    I act as a consultant to industry and have done throughout my academic career, primarily relating to preclinical biological performance evaluation of devices and functional device testing in animal models. In addition, I spent 2 years working with a US based start-up company on product development. My knowledge base includes familiarity with regulatory requirements for device technology in Australia, the USA and Europe as well as technical understanding across many device applications.

  2. Keywords

    3. hydrogels, drug delivery, cell delivery, bio-synthetic polymers, antibacterial polymers, tissue-material interactions, blood compatibility.

  3. End-user applications

    • Vascular prostheses (grafts, stents, heart valves)
    • Vascularisation of engineered tissue
    • Wound healing
    • Neural prostheses
    • Anti-angiogenic drug delivery

  4. Key publications

    5. I. 1. BourkeSL, Al-Khalili M, Briggs T, Michniak BB, Kohn J, Poole-Warren LA. A photo-crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel growth factor release vehicle for wound healing applications. AAPS Pharm Sci, 2003, 5(4): article 33 [online].
    II. 2. Masters KS, Leibovich SJ, Belem P, West JL, Poole-Warren LA. The effects of nitric oxide releasing poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel dressings on dermal wound healing in diabetic mice. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 2002, 10 (5): 286-294
    III. 3. Aldenhoff YB, van Der Veen FH, ter Woorst J, Habets J, Poole-Warren LA, Koole LH. Performance of a polyurethane vascular prosthesis carrying a dipyridamole (Persantin(R)) coating on its lumenal surface. J Biomed Mater Res, 2001; 54(2):224-233.
    IV. 4. Fujisawa N, Odell RA, Poole-Warren LA, Bertram CD, Woodard JC, Schindhelm K. Acute cellular interaction with textured surfaces in blood contact. J Biomed Mater Res, 2000; 53(3): 517-527.
    V. 5. Poole-Warren LA, Schindhelm K, Graham AR, Slowiaczek PR, Noble KR. Performance of small diameter synthetic vascular prostheses with confluent autologous endothelial cell linings. J. Biomed. Mater. Res. 30: 221-229, 1996

  5. Outreach activities

    6. I am course coordinator for 3 TE-related graduate courses at UNSW:
    BIOM9332 Biocompatibility
    2x new courses , one called Tissue Engineering and one called Chemistry and Physics of Synthetic and Biological Polymers (to be run in Session 2 2004)

  6. Key organisation membership

    7. Steam Executive

  7. Early career researcher?

    8. No.

  8. Young investigator?

    9. Yes.

  9. Skills and expertise

    • Cell culture (3D, culture on biomaterials)
    • Regulatory requirements
    • Polymer processing (hydrogels, PU)
    • Preclinical evaluation
    • Bacterial assays
    • Product development
    • Animal model development
    • Histolological analysis / immunohistochemistry
    • Microscopy

  10. Specialist equipment and infrastructure

    • IN-HOUSE (GSBME)
      • Cell culture (including bacterial)
      • Biochemistry
      • Animal Facilities (Op-theatre, fluoroscopy and recovery)
      • Specialist microscopy (confocal, fluorescent, phase etc)
    • FACS
      • Polymer processing
      • Mechanical testing (mini-tensiometer, tensile, fatigue testing)
      • L ight and LASER polymer curing systems
      • FEA and fluid-structure interactions (FSI) hardware/software
    • IN-HOUSE (UNSW)
      • Polymer characterization (FTIR, DSC, NMR, XPS etc)
      • Specialist microscopy (EM, AFM etc)
      • Histology

© 2004

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