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Research Interests

Tissue engineering, biomaterials,

additive manufacturing, emulsion templating,

polymer synthesis, porous materials,

decellularisation,

scientific and medical illustration

Publications

Selected

Basic principles of emulsion templating and its use as an emerging manufacturing method of tissue engineering scaffolds

Betül Aldemir Dikici, Frederik Claeyssens

Frontiers Bioeng. Biotech., 2020

Tissue engineering (TE) aims to regenerate critical size defects, which cannot heal naturally, by using highly porous matrices called TE scaffolds made of biocompatible and biodegradable biomaterials. There are various manufacturing techniques commonly used to fabricate TE scaffolds. However, in most cases, they do not provide materials with a highly interconnected pore design. Thus, emulsion templating is a promising and convenient route for the fabrication of matrices with up to 99% porosity...

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Boosting the osteogenic and angiogenic performance of multiscale porous polycaprolactone scaffolds by in vitro generated extracellular matrix decoration

Betül Aldemir Dikici, Gwendolen C. Reilly, and Frederik Claeyssens

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 12510-12524

Tissue engineering (TE)-based bone grafts are favorable alternatives to autografts and allografts. Both biochemical properties and the architectural features of TE scaffolds are crucial in their design process. Synthetic polymers are attractive biomaterials to be used in the manufacturing of TE scaffolds, due to various advantages, such as being relatively inexpensive, enabling precise reproducibility, possessing tunable mechanical/chemical properties, and ease of processing. However...

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Emulsion templated scaffolds

manufactured from photocurable polycaprolactone

Betül Aldemir Dikici, Colin Sherborne, and Gwendolen C. Reilly et al.

Polymer 2019, 175, 243-254

Emulsion templating is an emerging route for the production of highly porous scaffolds (PolyHIPEs) with interconnected porosity. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is one of the most extensively used synthetic, bioresorbable polymer for scaffold materials for both hard and soft tissues. PolyHIPEs have previously been shown to be challenging to formulate from PCL due to the high viscosity of the polymer, which limits the efficient mixing of the two phases of the emulsion. Herein...

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A novel bilayer polycaprolactone membrane for guided bone regeneration: combining electrospinning and emulsion templating

Betül Aldemir Dikici*, Serkan Dikici*, and Sheila MacNeil et al.

Materials (MDPI) 2019, 12(16), 2643 (*joint first authors)

Guided bone regeneration is a common dental implant treatment where a barrier membrane (BM) is used between epithelial tissue and bone or bone graft to prevent the invasion of the fast-proliferating epithelial cells into the defect site to be able to preserve a space for infiltration of slower-growing bone cells into the periodontal defect site. In this study...

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Assessment of the angiogenic potential of 2-deoxy-D-ribose using a novel in vitro 3D dynamic model in comparison with established in vitro assays

Serkan Dikici*, Betül Aldemir Dikici*, and Shirin Issa Bhaloo et al.

Frontiers Bioeng. Biotech., 2020, 7 (*joint first authors)

Angiogenesis is a highly ordered physiological process regulated by the interaction of endothelial cells with an extensive variety of growth factors, extracellular matrix components and mechanical stimuli. One of the most important challenges in tissue engineering is the rapid neovascularization of constructs to ensure their survival after transplantation. To achieve this...

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Landmarks in vaginal mesh development:

polypropylene mesh

for treatment of SUI and POP

NaÅŸide Mangir, Betül Aldemir Dikici, and Christopher Chapple et al.

Nature Reviews Urology, 2019, 16, 675–689

Vaginal meshes used in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) have produced highly variable outcomes, causing life-changing complications in some patients while providing others with effective, minimally invasive treatments. The risk:benefit ratio when using vaginal meshes is a complex issue in which a combination of several factors, including...

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Betül Aldemir Dikici

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