Bioinspired High Mechanical Performance Artifical Extracellular Matrices

ID: MPS/DMR/BMAT(7623) 0805264 PI: Gehrke， Stevin ORG: University of kansas标题：仿生高机械性能人工细胞外基质该项目将制备和表征亲水网络，以弥合多组分、分层有序、水合生物结构（如活组织的细胞外基质（ECM））与相对简单的单组分合成水凝胶组成和组织之间的差距。目标是深入了解水凝胶，特别是ECM的结构-性能关系，并为组织工程中的应用生成一类新的水凝胶支架材料。适合组织工程的三维支架通常需要支持细胞生长和分化，对营养物质和各种信号分子具有渗透性，并且要么是可吸收的，要么是可降解的，要么是新形成组织的良性成分。在这项研究中要检测的一个关键物理特性是韧性，即在压力下抵抗失效的能力，这是许多合成组织工程水凝胶所缺乏的特性。提出的工作将开发基于硫酸软骨素或透明质酸网络的高强度，适度可扩展的水凝胶网络，与聚乙二醇或弹性蛋白样多肽网络互穿。在第二阶段，将使用纳米凝胶作为合成聚合物网络中不受约束的多功能交联结来制备高度可扩展的坚韧网络。预计这些新的支架材料将具有适当的性能，以提供使软骨细胞生长成功能性软骨组织所需的机械线索。更广泛的影响：该项目每年将包括至少两名本科生，并已在预算中列入适当的资金；本项目将培养一名研究生。该项目还将为研究生提供至少一门由合作pi教授的生物工程课程的短期实验项目。在K-12阶段，pi在过去三年中通过为参与者开发实践实验，向他们介绍组织工程的各个方面，建立了与KU项目发现计划的参与。“发现项目”包括为来自不同人口群体的高中女生举办为期一周的夏令营。

ID: MPS/DMR/BMAT(7623) 0805264 PI: Gehrke, Stevin ORG: University of KansasTitle: Bioinspired High Mechanical Performance Artificial Extracellular MatricesINTELLECTUAL 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.