Data to support the attainment of the European CE mark by Hy2Care

The data required to achieve this deliverable will be obtained through: Secondment activities at Hy2Care that will focus on the performance of industry standard tests (biocompatibility, toxicity etc) (Task 5.2) and safety and performance testing in orthotopic animal models (Task 5.3). Secondment activities at UoN that will focus on advanced characterization of the hydrogels to complement the studies performed at Hy2Care and to allow hydrogel optimization. Characterization will include high-resolution microscopy to determine cross-linking density (e.g. AFM/TEM imaging) (Task 5.4), combined with spectroscopy (FT-IR/FT-Raman) and AFM nanoindentation measurements (Task 5.5) to verify chemical and mechanical changes during cross-linking respectively. Later studies will employ surface chemical methods (e.g. TofSIMs, XPS) to define the chemical nature of cell-hydrogel and hydrogel- bone/cartilage interface (Task 5.6) alongside confocal fluorescence microscopy to understand the interaction with and effect on cells.