Biomaterials: Drug Release from a Hydrogel Scaffold

Biomaterials such as titanium alloys, PEEK, hydroxyapatite and biodegradable hydrogels are engineered to interact with living tissue in a controlled way — osseointegration at an implant surface, or sustained drug delivery from a resorbable scaffold. This simulator visualizes the latter: a porous polymer lattice holds a payload of drug molecules near its core, and each molecule performs a random-walk diffusion through the pores until it crosses the scaffold boundary and is released into the surrounding tissue. The scaffold itself erodes over time exactly as a bioresorbable implant does, opening more channels and accelerating release as degradation progresses. Adjust porosity, drug mobility and the scaffold's degradation rate to see how each reshapes the release curve — from a slow, sustained trickle to a fast burst — the same trade-off biomedical engineers tune when designing controlled-release implants.