Professor of Materials Science; Director of the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials
Email: rec11@cam.ac.uk
Research interests
Together with Professor Serena Best, I direct the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials. My research focuses on materials which interact therapeutically with the body, including applications in musculoskeletal repair, regeneration and replacement.
Ice templating 3D environments for the control of tissue growth
The availability of tailored three dimensional environments for control of cell behaviour is a key step in the regeneration of healthy tissue in the body and can also enable model tissue creation for drug screening and cancer research. We are using ice templating techniques to create materials that mimic the complex orientational and spatial anisotropy of natural tissue, and that impart defined biochemical and mechanical cues. This is enabling us to develop bespoke cellular environments for clinical contexts including orthopaedic repair.
Biodegradable polymers and composites
Resorbable polymers and composites may be used in temporary load-bearing applications such as sutures, pins and scaffolds. We are exploring the intricate temporal and spatial relationships between the processing and morphology of the material, the diffusion rates of water, drug and degradation products, the degradation rate of the polymer and ultimate properties. An understanding of these factors allows informed device design. Our study of composites ranges from the micro co-continuous to the nano-scale, for orthopaedic and other tissue repair.
Biostable implants
In many surgical applications, the implant material must not change over time within the challenging environment of the body. We are addressing a range of issues including spinal disc replacement.
Key publications
Pawelec KM, Husmann A, Best SM, Cameron RE. (2014) Understanding anisotropy and architecture in ice-templated biopolymer scaffolds. Materials Science & Engineering C- Materials for Biological Applications. 37, 141-147
Barrett CE and Cameron RE. (2014) X-ray microtomographic analysis of α-tricalcium phosphate-poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid nanocomposite degradation. Polymer. 55(16), 4041-4049
Pawelec KM, Husmann A, Best SM, Cameron RE. (2014) A design protocol for tailoring ice-templated scaffold structure. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 11(92) 20130958
Sheperd JH, Ghose S, Moavenian A, Kew SJ, Best SM, Cameron RE. (2013) Effect of fibre cross-linking on collagen-fibre reinforced collagen-chondroitin-6-sulphate materials for regenerating load-bearing soft tissues. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. Part A,101(1), 176-184
Kew SJ, Gwynne JH, Enea D, Abu-Rub M, Pandit A, Zeugolis D, Brooks RA, Rushton N, Best SM, Cameron RE. (2011) Regeneration and repair of tendon and ligament tissue using collagen fibre biomaterials. Acta Biomaterialia. (7)9, 3237-3247
Areas of expertise
Medical materials, collagen, materials characterisation, ice templating, scaffolds