Research Areas : Materials and Surfaces

Thrust One: Materials and Surfaces

The overall focus of Thrust 1 is to provide designs and strategies for the engineering of biomaterial surface coatings that enable precision control of the biology at surfaces. The direct application of such surfaces is to control the inflammatory response to biomaterials and prevent the biomaterial-initiated foreign body reaction. These surface engineering strategies are also applicable for in vitro diagnostics and sensors, which constitute an important secondary function of Thrust 1 that is connected to several industrial partners. The long-term goal of Thrust 1 is thus directed toward creating "recognition biomaterials" that interact through specific receptor-mediated signaling pathways to control the inflammatory response and prevent the foreign body reaction, as well as to control recognition events in diagnostic and sensor technologies.

A central thesis of UWEB is that the "signal" component of biomaterial coatings that directs biology should be presented in a "low noise" background. A primary goal of Thrust 1 is to design and engineer "stealth" surfaces that minimize non-specific molecular interactions with biological tissues. These nonspecific interactions can lead to uncontrolled activation of the macrophage and other inflammatory cell types in the biomaterials setting. Current mechanistic studies of the biological response to stealth surfaces will be incorporated into the design strategies for improving stealth coating technology in Thrust 1. A related goal is the definition and development of 3D architectural features, i.e. porosity, that allow appropriate signal delivery.

For signal delivery, Thrust 1's primary focus has been on the identification, display and/or release of biomolecules, biomolecular mimics, receptor antagonists/agonists that promote wound repair and control the inflammatory response to biomaterials. Thrust 1 has focused most effort on a set of matricellular proteins that play a key role in wound repair. This strategic direction is closely tied to expertise and research directions in Thrusts 2 and 3, where a number of investigators and projects are also focused on matricellular protein involvement in the biological response to biomaterials. Strategies include display of signals such as protein and peptide immobilization, capture of key proteins at engineered surfaces, as well as release strategies that include protein and gene delivery.

Thrust 1 enjoys a world-class environment for materials characterization, which is central to understanding and controlling material structure-function properties in the biological setting. Research has been focused on the development of techniques that directly address the key goal of characterizing the recognition/signal elements that are central to UWEB. The aim is to develop molecular characterization techniques that can relate biomolecular structure, dynamics, orientation, and ultimately activity to the different materials environments and specific immobilization chemistries.