Bioinspired High Mechanical Performance Artifical Extracellular Matrices

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

ID: MPS/DMR/BMAT(7623) 0805264 PI: Gehrke, Stevin ORG: University of Kansas Title: Bioinspired High Mechanical Performance Artificial Extracellular Matrices INTELLECTUAL MERIT: This project will prepare and characterize hydrophilic networks that bridge the gap between multicomponent, hierarchically ordered, hydrated biological structures like the extracellular matrix (ECM) of living tissues and the relatively simple composition and organization of single-component synthetic hydrogels. The goal is to gain insight into the structure-property relationships of hydrogels, in particular the ECM, and to generate a new class of hydrogel scaffold materials for applications in tissue engineering. Three-dimensional scaffolds suitable for tissue engineering typically need to support cell growth and differentiation, be permeable to nutrients and various signaling molecules, and to be either resorbable, or degradable, or a benign component of newly formed tissues. A key physical feature to be examined in this study is toughness, the ability to resist failure under stress, a characteristic lacking in many synthetic tissue engineering hydrogels. The proposed work will develop high strength, moderately extensible hydrogel networks based on chondroitin sulfate or hyaluronic acid networks interpenetrating with networks of polyethylene glycol or elastin-like polypeptide. In a second phase, highly extensible, tough networks will be prepared using nanogels as unconstrained, multifunctional crosslink junctions in synthetic polymer networks. It is expected that these new scaffold materials will have the right properties to provide the mechanical cues needed to enable cartilage cell growth into functional cartilage tissue. BROADER IMPACTS: The project will include at least two undergraduate students each year, and appropriate funding has been included in the budget; one graduate student will be trained in the course of this project. The project will also provide shorter term laboratory projects for graduate students in at least one bioengineering course taught by one of the Co-PIs. At the K-12 level, the PIs have established participation over the past three years with the KU Project Discovery program by developing hands-on experiments for the participants that introduce them to aspects of tissue engineering. The Project Discovery program involves a week long summer camp for high school girls from diverse demographic groups.