IMX Colloquium - Instructive soft biomaterials for tissue response by design: steering events at the biointerface

Dynamic structural changes in cellular microenvironments are critical factors for development, tissue homeostasis, and disease progression. These changes are enabled by the mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and its susceptibility to cleavage by proteolytic enzymes such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Instructive hydrogels allow living cells to interact with an ECM mimicking environment, which brings the great potential of hydrogels in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Medical challenges in numerous areas can be tackled through smart design and engineering of hydrogel systems: from implant or deep wound related bacterial infections, tissue regeneration to advanced microphysiological in vitro models.
Different hydrogel-based strategies will be discussed.

Bio: Katharina Maniura is head of the Biointerface lab and Co-Head of the Research Focus Health at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, an interdisciplinary research institute within the ETH Domain. She is affiliated with the Health Science and Technology Department at ETH Zürich. Empa’s research activities focus on meeting the needs of society and the requirements of industry, and thus link applications-oriented research with the practical implementation of new ideas.  Trained as a Chemist at Marburg University, Germany, and after completing her graduate research at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, she worked as postdoctoral fellow in the Physiology Departments at the Universities of Heidelberg and Cologne (both Germany) before relocating to Switzerland.
Her scientific interest focuses on biomaterials, biointerfaces, surface modification, hydrogel functionalization, drug delivery systems and, the characterization of the biological response to materials. For this, predictive in vitro models for mammalian cell and tissue response and models for bacterial response are being developed. Her team members come from disciplines ranging from biology to materials science and engineering and the team closely collaborates with clinicians. The Biointerface team works towards a comprehensive understanding of a selection of medical challenges which helps to develop novel, multidisciplinary solutions and novel treatments.