Design and Application of Biocompatible Polycations

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This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to University of Pittsburg is to develop a family of biocompatible polycations that can interact with heparin to deliver growth factors. Growth factors are powerful molecules that can control cell functions including survival, differentiation, proliferation, and migration. Heparin binds with a wide range of growth factors and this binding stabilizes and potentiates growth factors. This project will explore the influence of structural variations on the polycations' capability to encapsulate and deliver growth factors. Furthermore, this award will study how to control the release of the growth factors and decipher how to achieve high rate of efficacy. The second part of the project will be to harness the power of growth factors and use them to control cell fate and tissue function, and further our understanding on polyelectrolyte interactions under biological conditions. This research will not only advance materials research, but also prepare next generation of researchers for the fast evolving and exciting field of biomaterials. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in this highly interdisciplinary project and gain insights in materials science, cell biology, chemistry, and regenerative medicine. The results from this project will be widely disseminated through the World Wide Web including blogs that are also designed for cell phones to a reach a young audience.Polycations are big molecules that carry many positive charges. They are very useful because they bind with important molecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins that carry negative charges. Studies under this project will explore the interaction between the polycations and growth factors (proteins), and to find out how to preserve the activity of the growth factors. Growth factors control cell cycles such as life, death, mobility or lack thereof, change to another cell type or cells division. This research will enable one to harness the power of growth factors to control cell behavior. The proposed studies are expected to gain fundamental insights on how these molecules interact under biological conditions. Furthermore, this project will study how to deliver growth factors efficiently to improve or enhance human health and wellbeing. This research will not only advance science, but also prepare next generation of researchers for the fast evolving and exciting field of biomaterials. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in this highly interdisciplinary project, and they are expected to gain insights in materials science, cell biology, chemistry, and regenerative medicine. The results of this project will be widely disseminated through the World Wide Web including blogs, especially targeting a young audience to ignite their interests in pursuing a career in science and engineering.