| AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session BI+MG-WeA |
| Session: | Design and Discovery: Biointerfaces |
| Presenter: | Morgan Alexander, The University of Nottingham, UK |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Polymer micro arrays have proven to be useful tools for the discovery of new synthetic materials which control cells.1 This high throughput (HT) materials discovery approach is attractive because the paucity of understanding of the cell-material interface hinders the ab initio rational design of new materials.2 The large number of polymer chemistries that can be investigated on a single polymer micro array act as a wide “net” in the search for materials that can achieve a certain cell response. Micro array hits are the starting point from which new materials may be developed.
Combinatorial acrylate libraries formed on standard glass slides were presented as a HT platform by Anderson and Langer of MIT.3 To complement materials screening, we developed the approach of HT surface characterisation employing a range of analytical techniques in collaboration with the MIT group.4 This surface characterisation step is necessary to directly relate the effect of the material on attached cells to the actual surface on which they sit, and to enable effective scale up from micro array to culture ware dimensions. Application of chemometrics, to handle the large amounts of complex data, reveals the importance of certain surface moieties, guiding the process of materials discovery and increasing our understanding of the cell-material interface.
We have applied this approach to the identification of materials which resist bacterial attachment and biofilm formation with application in the reduction of medical device centred infection.5,6 In the mammalian cell field, we have identified materials which show promise as synthetic substrates for pluripotent stem cell culture.7,8 These materials require pre-treatment with expensive proteins such as vitronectin, a constraint which limits their commercialisation.9
In this talk, screening of arrays with greater chemical diversity than ever before, incorporating up to 140 monomers10, is reported which leads to the identification of materials which support pluripotent stem cell expansion without pre-treatment of the substrate with protein. Materials which support differentiation to mature cardiomyocytes which have potential application in in vitro toxicology screening have also been discovered.
1 Hook, A. L. Biomaterials (2010).
2 Kohn, J., Nature Materials (2004).
3 Anderson et al. Nature Biotechnology (2004).
4 Urquhart, A.et al. Advanced Materials (2007).
5 Hook, A. L. et al. Nature Biotechnology (2012).
6 Hook, A. L. et al. Advanced Materials (2013)
7 Mei, Y et al. Nature Materials (2010).
8 Saha, K. et al PNAS (2011).
9 Celiz, A. D et al. Nature Materials (2014).
10 Celiz, A.et al. Biomaterials Science (2014).