1. Materials, Mechanics & Structures Research Division
The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition
The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition (or RSSSE for short) is the UK’s most prestigious science
exhibition, held each year in London at the Royal Society building on Carlton House Terrace. It is a public
dissemination event with more than 10,000 visitors and 2,000 school students attending in person, along with
distinguished society fellows and members of parliament. TV and media coverage along with a supporting
website and social media network ensures that many more people are exposed to the event. The event
consists of 22 exhibits from a broad range of scientific disciplines. The University of Nottingham’s strong track
record in research into advanced materials, health and wellbeing has enabled success in its proposal to create
an exhibition of plastics used in the body.
Cross disciplinary research at the forefront of science
The exhibit will showcase cutting edge research from the Schools of Pharmacy, Chemistry and the Faculty of
Engineering and cover all aspects of the use of polymers in the human body. Interactive displays will be designed to
engage the public and raise their awareness of polymers and how they can benefit our health and the event is an
opportunity for direct discussions between researchers and the public. The focus of the display will be to educate
visitors and will also highlight the existing challenges and current research at the University of Nottingham
Drug delivery
Polymers have be proven to be useful
vehicles for the delivery of drugs, from
simple nicotine patches to contraceptive
implants and from diabetes management to
malaria treatment and anticancer therapies
[1]. They can be used for continuous
systematic delivery or for highly targeted
applications. This can provide a much better
control of medication delivery with fewer
toxic side effects, less waste of expensive
pharmaceuticals and better patient
compliance.
Polymers used for drug delivery can be
durable, long term implants that administer
drugs by slow diffusion, or they can be
resorbable, breaking down in the body to
release the drugs that they contain.
Careful manipulation of the morphology
and structure of the polymer (such as
through porosity or a core/shell form) can
enable the application of drugs only at a
specific site, such as an area of
inflammation, and can release their contents
at constant or varied rates.
Drug delivery can also be combined with
other therapies, such as the delivery of cells
or in combination with a polymer device such
as a catheter.
Medical devices
Polymers are used in many
devices in the body, thanks to
their versatility. They are used in
highly flexible catheters, as
electrically inert cable covers in
pacemakers, as low friction and
low wear surfaces in hips and knee
joints, as strong replacement
ligaments and tendons, as non-
adhesive films and bandages, as
Surface character
The surface behaviour of implanted
polymers is critical to controlling their
interaction with the body. Polymers can
be hydrophobic or hydrophilic and these
characteristics affect proteins and cells
on their surfaces.
A particular clinical need is the
prevention of unwanted foreign bodies
such as bacteria attaching to the
surface. Although some success has
been achieved by using antimicrobial
materials e.g. silver to kill the bacteria,
this has not provided a long term
solution.
Alternative methods include either the
use of polymers that are naturally
antimicrobial, providing a longer term
effect, or by using clever modifications
of the surface topography to prevent
bacterial attachment [5,6].
Use of these alternatives can help
reduce the risk of long term infection
whilst also reducing the occurrence of
bacterial infection, avoiding bacterial
resistance and lessening the use of
antibiotics. Avoiding the use of drugs
also provides an easier regulatory
route.
(a) (b) (c)
Silver
hydrogel
coating
Uncoated
silicone
Leading
material
Bacterial growth seen on different surface coatings.
Bacteria (a) Uropathogenic Escherichia Coli, (b)
Staphylococcus aureus, (c) Pseudomonas aeruginosa [5]
glues and cements, even as
artificial hearts.
Polymers can also be
reinforced with particles and
fibres, improving their
properties and expanding
their possible applications.
References
[1] Hossain, K.M.Z., et al, Development of microspheres for biomedical applications: a review. Progress in Biomaterials, 2014. 4(1): p. 1-19.
[2] http://tiny.cc/RSSE2016c
[3] http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/news_publications/news_release/AbioCor_Heart.html
[4] http://tiny.cc/RSSE2016a
[5] Hook, A.L., et al., Combinatorial discovery of polymers resistant to bacterial attachment. Nature Biotechnology, 2012. 30(9): p. 868-U99.
[6] Magennis, E.P., et al., Bacteria-instructed synthesis of polymers for self-selective microbial binding and labelling. Nature Materials, 2014. 13(7): p. 748-755.
Exhibition committee
Engineering
Davide.Defocatiis@nottingham.ac.uk
Andrew.Parsons@nottingham.ac.uk
David.Grant@nottingham.ac.uk
Derek.Irvine@nottingham.ac.uk
Ed Lester (Eczehl@nottingham.ac.uk)
Jess Butterworth (emxjb1@nottingham.ac.uk)
Colin.Scotchford@nottingham.ac.uk
Alexander.Ilchev@nottingham.ac.uk
Gabriel.Choong@nottingham.ac.uk
M.Ward@nottingham.ac.uk
Magdalena.Tomczynska@nottingham.ac.uk
Pharmacy
Morgan.Alexander@nottingham.ac.uk
Cameron.Alexander@nottingham.ac.uk
Taranjit Singh (paxts4@nottingham.ac.uk)
Amanda.Pearce@nottingham.ac.uk
Andrew Hook (pazalh@nottingham.ac.uk)
Giuseppe.Mantovani@nottingham.ac.uk
Chemistry
Steve.Howdle@nottingham.ac.uk
Simon.Bassett@nottingham.ac.uk
Interference screws, a resorbable
polymer product made from high
molecular weight PLA [4].
Image of polymers entering cancer cells
Diagram of the human skeleton
[2]
Plastics inside us
Plastics are used in a wide variety of applications in the body due to their diverse properties and relative ease of manufacture and processing. The
exhibit will provide a broad understanding of what plastics are and what makes them so versatile, along with the history of plastics use in the body.
The main demonstration pieces will focus on three principle areas at the forefront of research: drug delivery, medical devices and control of surface
character.
Polymer artificial heart[3]
Road to the Royal Society
Summer Science Exhibition
Plastics Inside Us