SGER: Fabrication of Nanoporous Membranes for Enhanced Treatment of End-Stage Renal Disease

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The research objective of this award is to fabricate novel nanoporous membranes that protect kidney dialysis patients from accelerated aging, cancer, increased susceptibility to infection, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions that result from excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species. Recent studies indicate that the dialysis procedure itself can promote generation of reactive oxygen species by white blood cells. Current approaches for providing antioxidant drugs or creating reactive oxygen species-scavenging dialyzer membranes have been largely unsuccessful. Atomic layer deposition will be used to modify nanoporous alumina membranes with novel reactive oxygen species scavenging agents. Fundamental studies to determine the relationships between processing parameters, pore dimensions, chemical properties, and reactive oxygen species scavenging activity will be undertaken in order to develop optimized membranes for future in vivo and clinical studies. The results of the work can potentially lead to improved quality of life for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease and other reactive oxygen species-mediated diseases. From an educational perspective, the proposed project will be tightly integrated with the training objectives of both the biomedical engineering program at the University of North Carolina and the bio-manufacturing program at North Carolina State University. Modules on nanostructured biomaterials research activities will be placed in the PI?s undergraduate level and graduate level courses at the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University. Students from underrepresented backgrounds will be recruited to participate in the proposed research program, with undergraduate student support coming from a currently-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.