Cois Coiribe talks to Professor Ted Vaughan, Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Interim Director of the brand-new Institute for Health Discovery and Innovation at University of Galway. The new Institute consolidates a huge amount of the activity across the University in the fields of biomedical science, biomedical engineering, regenerative medicine and beyond, bringing researchers together to work in health discovery and innovation. Prof Vaughan explains how the Institute looks to tomorrow’s healthcare by focusing on gaining new understanding of disease and developing disruption solutions to health-based challenges, while benefitting from the support of Galway’s close MedTech community. Read on as we get a glimpse into Prof Vaughan’s experience as a researcher and Institute Director.
THE RESEARCH
In this section we look at Professor Vaughan’s innovative research in biomechanics and the advances being made toward medical devices that work better with the human body.
Ted Vaughan (TV): I’m Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University, and I’m also Interim Director of the new Institute for Health Discovery and Innovation. I’m from Cork, but I graduated from the Mechanical Engineering programme at University of Limerick. I did my Bachelor’s degree, and my PhD in the Behaviour of Advanced Materials, at University of Limerick. From there, I took up a post-doctoral research position here at University of Galway, working in the area of Bone Biomechanics. In 2015, I was appointed as a lecturer, and I’ve since built a research group that focuses on Experimental and Computational Biomechanics, with a special interest in medical devices. I’ve been working in those areas over the past 10 years or so.
TV: In the context of medical devices, we are used to incorporating traditional engineering materials, such as stainless steel, cobalt chromium, or titanium. They are used in both orthopaedic and cardiovascular applications. If you consider orthopaedic screws for treatment of a traumatic fracture, the surgeon will have a range of different fixation devices to stabilise that fracture. The challenge comes when the impacted area heals over time. Bone and tissue growth occur around those fixation devices, and, in many cases, the surgeon will actually leave those screws or plates in place. In this situation, they will become implanted permanently. They’ll stay there for the rest of the patient’s life. Alternatively, in some cases, those items have to be removed in a subsequent surgery, which can lead to risks of infection and other complications.
With a biodegradable alternative, the idea is that you implant what is either polymer or metal-based bioabsorbable material. It then serves a load-bearing function for a number of weeks or months. Once that function has been completed, the material gradually begins to degrade. It’s absorbed naturally through the body’s metabolic processes. So, as the bone grows, that implant gradually degrades and is dissolved away. Over time, the healing tissue completely replaces the fixation device. There’s no need for a second surgery, and you don’t have the complication of a permanent implant embedded in the tissue.
TV: Figuring out the timespan of degradation for a particular device is one of the most difficult challenges we have in that field at the moment. With the materials available – certainly, the metal-based ones – one of the main sources of concern is that they degrade quite quickly. It presents certain hurdles in the actual design of those devices.
Because of this, we are looking to optimise the design of these devices, aiming to prolong their lifespan prior to degradation. In doing so, we can ensure they can fulfil a load-bearing responsibility for the required time. Action areas could include minimising weak points in that structure, or we might explore novel options such as coatings. A coating essentially provides a barrier of resistance for that initial degradation process, ultimately prolonging the life of the biodegradable implant.
TV: For nearing a decade now, I’ve worked toward a technical development aspect combatting device degradation in collaboration with a biomaterials company, Meotec Gmbh located in Aachen, Germany. Together, we’ve made strides to optimise one of their coating processes, the same we spoke of earlier, which provides a barrier for biodegradable materials. Through this process, we’ve really learnt a lot and gained many key insights into the mechanism by which that coating works. It has informed how we can effectively design devices using that coating, and how it might be further optimised to prolong the load-bearing function of a given device.
TV: One of the main fields for biodegradable implants is Paediatrics. A major issue with permanent implants in young people is that their bones are still growing. If you use a permanent implant in a surgical procedure, you can restrict bone growth. In that sense, finding an alternative is actually much more important for young people than it is for older adults, where their skeleton has stopped growing. Already, orthopaedic screws for the treatment of fractures in the bones of the foot have been developed using these coating technologies and are now actively used in clinical trials. Developing a product and getting it to that stage is challenging in itself and, at this point, they are showing positive results.
THE NEW INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH DISCOVERY AND INNOVATION
The brand-new Institute for Health Discovery and Innovation was launched on 10 October 2024, with Professor Vaughan as its Interim Director.
TV: The overall mission of the Institute is to accelerate fundamental and applied understanding of disease, and to enable disruptive solutions to health-based challenges – put simply, to improve our understanding of disease and provide better solutions. What the Institute does is consolidate a huge amount of the activity across the University in the fields of biomedical science, biomedical engineering and beyond. It brings these researchers under a clear identity of people who are working in this area of health, discovery and innovation.
In terms of key areas, the structure within the Institute is founded on 3 pillars.
Our first pillar is discovery. This is mainly scientists carrying out fundamental research into the underlying mechanisms of diseases, trying to better understand their progress and development. This is a key part of being able to provide treatment or interventions. These scientists work across a wide number of diseases, so it’s not disease specific. Examples are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and a range of infectious diseases.
The second pillar is enabling technologies. This is where, traditionally, engineers, physicists and people working in new and emerging areas – like data science or computer science and machine learning – are based. This pillar is around developing novel technologies which will directly impact healthcare. Here, people work on things like imaging approaches and diagnostics.
If we use cardiovascular disease as an example, we might ask how we better visualise cardiovascular disease, and how does that then help clinicians and doctors? How do we help them make decisions around interventions or treatments?
The third pillar is health-based challenges. Our researchers have a keen sense of whether they’re conducting fundamental research versus applied research. But a key goal of the Institute is to get people across that spectrum working together. Our engineers – or scientists or clinicians – come together to tackle distinct health-based challenges, all working together through interdisciplinary research. It’s a culmination of pillar 1 and pillar 2, bringing together those who can make an impact in a particular health challenge.
TV: We have a range of mechanisms by which we collaborate with industry, and also with healthcare providers. There are different funding schemes, like the Horizon Europe Programme, where we can build large consortia. Opportunities like this bring together key expertise across academia, industry and clinical practice across Europe. We also collaborate through more local, national funding schemes, like Enterprise Ireland or North–South partnerships. We’re extremely lucky here in Galway that we have such a vibrant medical technology industry. It’s right on our doorstep, and the University has extremely strong links with so many of those companies, largely because our graduates have been going out and working with those companies for the past 20 to 25 years. The links between industry activity and the University itself have undoubtedly mapped and aligned to what we do here in the Institute.
TV: To provide a specific example – cardiovascular disease. If we look to where healthcare is going, perhaps we can turn our eye toward preventative medicine. So that’s looking at things like: why does that disease develop in the first place? And why does that disease develop in this particular patient?
We have researchers with substantial expertise in genomics and bioinformatics, people who aim to understand and unravel the association between the development of a disease and an individual’s genetic profile. The other area is better imaging and better monitoring technologies. This may enable more pre-emptive screening of patients, resulting in more proactive treatments. It’s that idea of moving toward something more preventative, which could delay or negate the need for dire intervention.
TV: When people mention Galway, they automatically associate the locale with the MedTech sector. The region is a key advantage, there’s no doubt. I think the investment and prioritisation made by the University, specifically in the area of Biomedical Science and Engineering, speaks to that.
Over the course of a graduate’s career, many opportunities can present themselves. My own research moved very gradually toward cardiovascular devices due to the substantial presence of vascular companies and vascular device manufacture here in Galway. Industry engagement can come in the form of undergraduate projects through the professional placement programme or higher-level collaborative R&D projects. We have students from programmes across the University embedded in these surrounding companies, which establishes a critical link to the surrounding industry. It’s really an invaluable experience, and we’re lucky that these projects and placements can be part of the student journey. Oftentimes, our graduates end up working long-term in the local MedTech environment, so it’s a very symbiotic relationship between industry and university.
TV: Our MedTech ecosystem has several components that play a specific role within the innovation and implementation cycle. The University has a comprehensive pipeline that runs from fundamental discovery in the lab to patient care. It’s important to note that these breakthroughs may ultimately take 15 to 20 years, depending on what type of treatment or technology is involved.
We have expertise and opportunities at each step of that pipeline, each supporting the other. What has happened in Galway, and particularly in the University, is that we’re a very close community. That support between different programmes and people with varying expertise has always happened. With our new Institute, it’s about formalising that – encouraging it even further.
At the University, we have flagship national programmes, such as CÚRAM or BioInnovate, that focus on clinic-ready medical devices. The Institute provides a comprehensive piece around that, right through from discovery to innovation. It’s there to enable people’s expertise to flourish – affording them things like lab equipment and space – and providing other supports as needed. It’s all a part of the local ecosystem. As a new Institute, we’re excited about the concept of everyone working in this space, and we want to see where the next quarter of a century and beyond can take us. The future is bright.
