Bioactive material surfaces

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This program focuses on understanding and controlling interactions occurring between cells and biomaterial surfaces. Following ongoing studies in my laboratory, we propose here to fabricate a variety of platforms with controlled chemistry to understand the interaction between simple functional groups and adhesion peptides with proteins and different types of cells. Using a non-destructive and biocompatible chemistry, we propose to start off by modifying model bi-dimensional surfaces, and translate the results obtained to three-dimensional scaffolds for both hard and soft tissue regeneration. The final objective here is to prepare a composite scaffold able to attract and stimulate the activity of different cell types in each compartment. Within the same strategy we also propose to test two unconventional approaches for bone regeneration based on osteochondral ossification and graphene. The overall novelty and strength lies in the use of a simple and almost universal surface modification technique to compare the effect of simple chemical groups with that of adhesion peptides derived from the extracellular matrix that cells naturally interact with. Such approach will lead to important advances in fundamental understanding of material/cell interactions, as well as to a set of platforms easily translatable to the clinic and the market. For example, the bi-dimensional surfaces can be immediately used as new substrates to enhance cell culture; and the scaffolds could be applied to the clinic in a relatively short time thanks to the use of FDA-approved materials. The set of materials prepared with the most innovative strategies may not be translatable in the short term but have the potential to produce a disruptive new approach for bone tissue engineering. Overall, thus, this program will suggest new alternatives to treat non-self-healing bone defects. These are currently treated mostly through autografts, i.e. transplant of tissue from another location from the same patient, which doubles the risk of infection and often results in discomfort at both the donor and receiving site. This advancement will affect the more than 3.5 million people in the world that require such treatment each year, and alleviate the multi-billion dollar expense related to it, especially in industrialized countries such as Canada with an aging population. During this program, 3 PhD students, 1 PDF and 8 undergraduate students will be trained, who will be exposed to a highly interdisciplinary environment, often interacting with industries. The quality and number of publications from my previous HQPs, as well as their successful placement in positions highly relevant to their expertise, confirms the validity of this training approach and the likelihood of an excellent future career in academia or industry for all the trainees.