Development of Thin Organic Coatings for Biomedical Applications

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Surface modification of polymers plays a key role in the emergence and refinement of technological applications. The modification of a material's surface without altering desirable bulk properties is of particular importance in bio-technological application as they determine the biomolecule's interaction with the material. The nature of the interface and, in particular, its chemistry can be tailored to enhance or deter biological interactions. So-called "cold" (thermodynamically non-equilibrium) plasmas have been investigated extensively in this context over the past few decades, and various surface modification and deposition techniques have emerged, permitting the preparation of surfaces with selected properties. The properties range from promoting the adhesion of biomolecules and / or cells, to suppression of biofouling, to the control of cellular phenotypes. This proposal presents a five-year research program on the development of functional thin organic coatings, prepared by cold plasma and vacuum ultraviolet processes aimed at biomedical applications. This field of research is increasingly active, on account of "cross-fertilization" between the health- and materials sciences. Furthermore, although the development of deposition techniques continues to be an essential research avenue, it is also of equally utmost importance to develop characterization tools that will enable their successful application. By simultaneously obtaining data that can be used in the design and optimization of materials for various applications, those tools will encourage a multidisciplinary dialogue amongst chemists, engineers, physicists, biologists and physicians. More precisely, the present proposal aims at achieving the following objectives: i) Development and improvement of coating technologies that enable the preparation of chemically well-defined surfaces, tailored towards specific applications; ii) Development of new characterization techniques to enhance our understanding of the surface chemistry; iii) Better understanding of the interactions between cells and functional surfaces, and of the underlying adhesion mechanisms; iv) Synthesis of surfaces with adhesion properties that are selective towards specific cell types.