| Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2014) | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session BI-TuM |
| Session: | Biomaterial & Wet Interface Characterization |
| Presenter: | Julia Lyubovitsky, UCR |
| Authors: | X. Lang, UCR M. Spousta, UCR J. Gigante, UCR A. Vu, UCR Y. Hwang, UCR J. Lyubovitsky, UCR |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Optical methods are uniquely suited for characterization of complex biological systems due to their generally non-destructive nature. The applications include characterizing biomaterials/devices employed as medical implants or tissue engineered scaffolds. We have been developing advanced optical imaging guided spectroscopy methods to study the structures of 3D collagen-based biomaterials. This talk will summarize the novel insights regarding the physicochemical controls of assembly of collagen biopolymer into the fibers within 3D hydrogels, cross-linking, digestibility and quantification of hydrogels’ structural parameters. For example, our recent study indicated that ions strongly affect the aggregation of collagen into the fibers and consequently modulate the length of the fibers that can be prepared. Changing the temperature led to a multilateral response that depended on the type of ion employed. The knowledge obtained can be applied to explore the practically important and complex processes during assembly and dis-assembly of collagen in engineering of functional biomaterials.