AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Wednesday Sessions
       Session BI-WeM

Invited Paper BI-WeM1
Switchable BioInterfaces with Nanoscale Control

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 8:00 am, Room 2014

Session: Bio-interfacial Modification and Bio-Immobilization I (Honoring Marcus Textor, ETH-Zürich for Substantial Contributions to the Field)
Presenter: J. Vörös, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
Authors: J. Vörös, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
C.S. Tang, Swiss Federal Labs for Materials Testing and Res.
C. Huwiler, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
B. Stadler, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
T. Blattler, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
M. Halter, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
M. Bally, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
M. Gabi, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
D. Grieshaber, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
O. Guillaume-Gentil, Lab of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Switzerland
Correspondent: Click to Email
The success of biomaterials critically depends on the ability to interact with the biological environment. The bioresponse is often determined by the properties of the biointerface which requires precise control on the micron- and nanometer scale. This presentation will highlight examples on how current state-of-the-art surface modification methods, such as self-assembled monolayers and poly(ethylene glycol) grafted polyelectrolytes can be used to tailor biointerfaces. For both molecular systems, functional groups are directly introduced into the molecule. Such functional groups are shown to have three advantages: a) they enable production of well-defined and stable surfaces; b) they can be functionalized with biologically relevant reactive groups such as capture probes, antibodies, peptides, drugs or growth factors; and c) they can be combined with (nano)lithography techniques producing patterns with different surface chemistries on the submicron scale.@footnote 1@ Engineered surfaces with such control are ideal platforms for sensing applications (e.g. for microarrays, or for bioaffinity sensors) and at the same time they can also be applied to drug delivery systems and biomaterials, to control specific and non-specific biomolecule - surface interactions. Recently, we have put a lot of efforts into achieving not only spatial but also a dynamic control over the properties of biointerfaces. Surfaces that change upon external stimuli provide us with new research tools for studying complex biological systems and to overcome difficulties in producing heterogeneous microarrays of fragile biomolecules. Highlights for the use of novel, electronically@footnote 2@ - or photo-active@footnote 3@ surfaces for applications in biosensing and local drug delivery will be presented. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ J. Voros et al; MRS Bulletin, 30(3):202-206, 2005.@footnote 2@ C.S. Tang et al; Analytical Chemistry, 78:711-717, 2006.@footnote 3@ B. Stadler et al; Langmuir, 20: 11348-11354, 2004.