Novel organic thin film biomaterials for tissue engineering

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Deposition of thin films and etching operations via the use of "cold" (thermodynamically non-equilibrium) low-pressure (LP) plasmas achieved prominence in information technology since the 1960s. Those two operations and a third, surface modification of polymers, are now also being used in many other industries. Recently, there has been much progress in implementing atmospheric-pressure (AP) "cold" plasmas, mostly the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) variety, for those three process categories. Beside direct use of LP and AP plasmas, it is also possible to carry out such processes by vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV, lambda < 200 nm) photochemistry, since commercial (plasma-based) VUV sources can efficiently convert electrical energy into short-wavelength photons. A potential advantage of (mono-energetic) photo-chemistry over its plasma-based counterparts is that the former may result in more "targeted" reactions, with higher yields of the desired products. Research in the applicant's laboratory of all types (LP-, AP-, VUV-) above has so far resulted in well over 400 refereed publications, in more than two dozen patents, and in much technology transfer to industry. He now proposes novel, highly interdisciplinary research on thin organic films for use in bio-medical "tissue engineering" applications. Such coatings must be very rich in certain types of chemical functionalities, for example in primary amines, they must adhere strongly to various substrate materials, must resist "ageing" in atmosphere and dissolution in aqueous (cell-culture) media, among other criteria. Finally, of course, they must first and foremost elicit the desired bio-response from the cell-type(s) being cultured. This latter aspect calls for close collaboration with specialists in the cell-biological and medical sciences that are being addressed in any given sub-project. During the past ten years, the applicant's laboratory has developed the required network of collaborations, mostly with senior researchers in the medical faculties of McGill and Montréal universities.