Characterization and optimization of bioactive coatings for vascular applications

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Cardiovascular diseases are the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialised countries like Canada. Minimally-invasive therapies using endovascular implants inserted by catheters have been developed that offer numerous advantages over conventional surgeries, including reduced risks of mortality, decreased blood loss and shorter recovery and hospitalisation times. Yet, their efficacy is often jeopardized by frequent clinical complications. As chairman of the Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials and endovascular implants, Lerouge aims to improve these implants and therapies by developing clinically-suitable strategies. This research program is focused on bioactive coatings designed to counter the inherent shortcomings of synthetic polymers used for endovascular implants. Our approach is to develop a versatile method using plasma-polymerized coatings that can be deposited on a wide variety of surfaces. These films were shown to exhibit excellent cell adhesion properties. More importantly, their chemical composition allows easy and efficient immobilisation of biomolecules for the control of the biological response. Yet several issues (adhesion, sterilizability, stability ...) remain to be addressed before transfering these innovative coatings onto realistic implants. This research program will enable optimization and characterization of bioactive coatings for a new generation of vascular and endovascular implants with less clinical complications. The engineering tools and methods developed will later also be applicable to other coatings and pathologies. Benefits will include multidisciplinary training of highly qualified personnel in this very strategic research field for Canada. Lerouge's close collaborations with clinicians and industry in this strategically-important field for Canada constitute keys for success.