"Nanostructured Injectable Hydrogels with Tunable ""Smart"" Properties"

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Hydrogels, water-swollen polymer networks, have tremendous potential for addressing current challenges in the environment (e.g. soil remediation, pesticide delivery), consumer products (e.g. moisturizers, shampoos), food (e.g. flavour masking, nutritional supplements, safe packaging), and medicine (controlled delivery of drugs, medical adhesives, or cell growth supports). Biological applications have attracted particular interest given that the chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of hydrogels can be designed to mimic biological soft tissues such as muscle, enabling hydrogels to satisfy application needs that other types of materials cannot. To effectively apply hydrogels in these applications, the nano-scale and surface properties of hydrogels must be precisely controlled to achieve the drug release rate, cell interaction, or adhesion strength required. The proposed research aims to develop injectable hydrogels, based on microgels (i.e. small hydrogel particles) and/or engineered polymers that rapidly form hydrogels upon injection from low-viscosity precursors, that have well-controlled chemistries and physical properties on the nano-scale. Our approach is to develop a range of chemically-reactive building blocks with well-defined properties and then mix them in different combinations and different ratios; manipulation of the simultaneous chemical reaction to form a gel and physical interactions between the building blocks selected is anticipated to create oriented hydrogel and microgel structures that degrade at programmed rates. The incorporation of "smart" materials into the building blocks whose properties change upon some stimulus (e.g. temperature, light, or pH) provides further, external control over the gel properties. Such materials have significant potential for designing improved sensors, enabling prolonged duration drug therapies (improving the efficacy while reducing the frequency of drug treatments), controlling cell adhesion (improving wound healing), creating strong, flexible bonds between tissues (improving wet adhesives), and creating fast-responding "gates" for nanotechnology. The proposed research program also creates opportunities for interdisciplinary training integral to address current technology challenges.