Modification and characterisation of surfaces and plasma processes for biotechnological applications

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Surface modification technologies allow improving the biocompatibility of materials to be implanted in the human body. One of these surface modification technologies involves immersing materials within plasmas which basically consist in gaseous species that are excited using an external energy field. This leads to the activation of the surface which then becomes suited for the attachment of biocompatible molecules. On one hand, this research will focus on the characterisation of the plasmas that are used to modify the surface of biomaterials. The objective of this part of the project will be to determine the chemistry of the plasma treated surfaces from the physicochemical properties of the plasmas. One the other hand, this project will be devoted to understand the conditions that allow preserving biomolecules bioactivity upon surface grafting with a particular interest on the effect of surface hydrophilicity, distance between the surface and the biomolecule, and biomolecule conjugation site. The outcomes of this research program (in situ monitoring of plasmas to predetermine their surface chemistry and knowledge of the parameters to maintain biomolecule bioactivity upon surface conjugation) will be highly relevant for future developments in the field of implantable biomaterials.