In this episode, Dr. Aleksandra Serafin shares her revolutionary work on using electroconductive scaffolds for spinal cord injury (SCI) repair. Despite the hostile environment post-SCI that hampers neuronal track re-establishment, her research is offering promising prospects for SCI tissue engineering (TE) treatment strategies.

Dr. Serafin discusses the limitations of existing conductive polymers, like poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), due to their suboptimal biofunctionality and biocompatibility. She elucidates her innovative solution, synthesizing PEDOT nanoparticles (NPs) via chemical oxidation polymerization in miniemulsion, which are then incorporated with gelatin and hyaluronic acid (HA) to create gel:HA:PEDOT-NPs scaffolds.

She shares her comprehensive study results, detailing scaffold characte ...