Distinguished iNANO Lecture by Associate Professor Dror Seliktar

Associate Professor Dror Seliktar, Department of Biomedical Engineering, TECHNION Israel Institute of Technology, Israel

Gels in Biomedicine: Controlling Structure to Improve Performance
Controlling the nano, micro and macro scale architecture of hydrogels has proven particularly effective in regulating cell response at the material-tissue interface. This presentation covers a few of the advanced design principles currently being applied to engineer cell-compatible biomedical hydrogels, with specific focus on how sophisticated new materials systems may lead the way to new discoveries in basic science, clinical medicine and biotechnology.

In the near future, hydrogels are expected to play a much greater role in biomedicine, changing the way we approach issues in stem cell research, cancer biology, drug discovery, tissue engineering and biotechnology. The development of improved methods to synthesize cell-compatible hydrogels to accommodate this trend depends on a thorough understanding of the design possibilities and the limitations.  While biological systems provide an exceptional source of design inspiration for creating cell-compatible materials, man-made water-soluble polymers and polymer chemistry have contributed to the establishment of better control over the properties and reliability of the polymeric macromolecules, and subsequently, better control over the properties of the materials they form.

Nanoscience is the study, manipulation and engineering of matter, particles and structures on the nanometer scale. In biomaterial design, important properties are determined by the way molecules and atoms assemble on the nanoscale into larger structures. This is because cell-biomaterial interactions, which are governed at the nanometer length scale, can be manipulated based on modifications to the molecular assembly of the material.

References

1. Seliktar D., “Designing Cell-Compatible Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications,” Science, 336(6085):1124-8, 2012.
2. Mironi-Harpaz, I., Wang, D.Y., Venkatraman, S., Seliktar, D. “Photopolymerization of Cell-Encapsulating Hydrogels: Crosslinking Efficiency Versus Cytotoxicity,” Acta Biomaterialia, 8(5):1838-48, 2012.
3. Shachaf, Y., Gonen-Wadmany, M., Seliktar, D., “The biocompatibility of PluronicF127 fibrinogen-based hydrogels,” Biomaterials, 31(10):2836-47, 2010.
4. Dikovsky, D., Bianco-Peled, H., Seliktar, D., “The effect of Structural Alterations of PEG-Fibrinogen Hydrogel Scaffold on 3-D Cellular Morphology and Cellular Migration,” Biomaterials, 27(8):1496-506, 2006.
5. Almany, L., Seliktar, D., “Bio-Synthetic Hydrogel Scaffolds made from Fibrinogen and Polyethylene Glycol for 3-D Cell Cultures,” Biomaterials, May, 26(15):2467-77,2005.