Discovery of Bio-instructive Materials
Event details
| Date | 14.03.2017 |
| Hour | 12:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Morgan Alexander, University of Nottingham, Nottingham (UK) |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
BIOENGINEERING SEMINAR
(sandwiches served)
Abstract:
The range of biomaterials found in the clinic today are dominated by materials chosen on the basis of their availability and mechanical properties rather than positive interactions with surrounding cells and tissues. It would be desirable to design our way forward from this situation to new biomaterials. Unfortunately our understanding of the bio-interface is poor, with only isolated cases where a good understanding of cell-material interactions can be cited, and fewer still where material-tissue interactions are well characterised and understood. This paucity of information on the mechanism of biomaterial interactions with the body acts as a roadblock to rational design. Consequently we have taken a high throughput screening approach to discover new bio-instructive materials from large chemical libraries- this approach can be described as the engineering serendipitous discovery.[1] These new candidate biomaterials provide a starting point for development of new medical devices and provide opportunities to study their mechanism of action to provide new information to tackle the rational design roadblock.
A polymer micro array screening approach has been used to identify bio-instructive materials in the discovery of polymers with application in expansion of pluripotent human embryonic stem cells and the identification of substrates on which to mature cardiomyocytes.[2,3,4] Other screening campaigns using macrophage differentiation have identified bio-instructive materials with pro- and anti-inflammatory characteristics with great potential in modulating the human immune system in novel therapies and devices.[5] Materials resisting bacterial attachment and biofilm have also been identified and will be presented, with early data on the investigation of their mechanism of biofilm formation resistance.[6] Work to integrate and expand this range of bio-instructive materials will be previewed, including moves underway towards 3D screening.
Bio:
Morgan Alexander is Professor of Biomedical Surfaces, the Director of the EPSRC Programme Grant in Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery, a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder and a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. He received his BSc in Materials (1988) and his PhD from the same department at The University of Sheffield in 1992.
(sandwiches served)
Abstract:
The range of biomaterials found in the clinic today are dominated by materials chosen on the basis of their availability and mechanical properties rather than positive interactions with surrounding cells and tissues. It would be desirable to design our way forward from this situation to new biomaterials. Unfortunately our understanding of the bio-interface is poor, with only isolated cases where a good understanding of cell-material interactions can be cited, and fewer still where material-tissue interactions are well characterised and understood. This paucity of information on the mechanism of biomaterial interactions with the body acts as a roadblock to rational design. Consequently we have taken a high throughput screening approach to discover new bio-instructive materials from large chemical libraries- this approach can be described as the engineering serendipitous discovery.[1] These new candidate biomaterials provide a starting point for development of new medical devices and provide opportunities to study their mechanism of action to provide new information to tackle the rational design roadblock.
A polymer micro array screening approach has been used to identify bio-instructive materials in the discovery of polymers with application in expansion of pluripotent human embryonic stem cells and the identification of substrates on which to mature cardiomyocytes.[2,3,4] Other screening campaigns using macrophage differentiation have identified bio-instructive materials with pro- and anti-inflammatory characteristics with great potential in modulating the human immune system in novel therapies and devices.[5] Materials resisting bacterial attachment and biofilm have also been identified and will be presented, with early data on the investigation of their mechanism of biofilm formation resistance.[6] Work to integrate and expand this range of bio-instructive materials will be previewed, including moves underway towards 3D screening.
- Magennis, E.P., Hook, A.L., Davies, M.C., Alexander, C., Williams, P., and Alexander, M.R. Engineering serendipity: High-throughput discovery of materials that resist bacterial attachment. Acta Biomaterialia 34, 84 (2016).
- Mei, Y.; Saha, K.; Bogatyrev, S.R.; Yang, J.; Hook, A. L…Van Vliet, K.J.; Davies, M.C.; Alexander, M.R.; Langer, R.; Jaenisch, R.; Anderson, D.G. Combinatorial development of biomaterials for clonal growth of human pluripotent stem cells. Nature Materials 2010, 9 (9), 768-778.
- Celiz, A.D.; Smith, J.G. W.; Patel, A.K.; Hook, A.L.; Rajamohan, D.; George, V.T.; Flatt, L.; Patel, M.J.; … Langer, R.; Anderson, D. G.; Allen, N.D.; Hay, D. C.; Winkler, D.A.; Barrett, D.A.; Davies, M.C.; Young, L.E.; Denning, C.; Alexander, M.R. Discovery of a Novel Polymer for Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Expansion and Multilineage Differentiation. Advanced Materials 2015, 27 (27), 4006-4012.
- Patel, A.K., Celiz, A.D., Rajamohan, D., Anderson, D.G., Langer, R., Davies, M.C., Alexander, M.R., and Denning, C. A defined synthetic substrate for serum-free culture of human stem cell derived cardiomyocytes with improved functional maturity identified using combinatorial materials microarrays. Biomaterials 61, 257 (2015).
- Rostam et al. in preparation.
- Hook, A, Chang, C, Yang, Luckett, J, Cockayne, A, Atkinson, S, Mei, Bayston, R, Irvine, D, Langer, R, Anderson, D, Williams, P, Davies, M, and Alexander, MR Erratum: Combinatorial discovery of polymers resistant to bacterial attachment Nature Biotechnology 30 868 (2012).
Bio:
Morgan Alexander is Professor of Biomedical Surfaces, the Director of the EPSRC Programme Grant in Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery, a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder and a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. He received his BSc in Materials (1988) and his PhD from the same department at The University of Sheffield in 1992.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free