Modification and characterisation or surfaces and plasma processes for biotechnological applications

我的研究项目重点是生物材料的表面修饰和表征，以提高它们的生物相容性。我的团队部署了大量的努力，利用基于等离子的技术来开发微调的表面功能化或涂层。等离子体基本上是由气体激发的物质组成的，这些物质与材料表面接触，要么改变材料的化学结构，要么在材料表面覆盖一层薄薄的聚合物质。我们的目标将是掌握等离子工艺(1)微调等离子体处理/涂层材料的表面化学，以及(2)限制(如果不是消除)进一步耗时的表面表征程序的需要。 我的研究计划的第一个目标将集中在介质阻挡放电(DBD)大气等离子体的特性上，即用于点亮/维持注入到等离子体中的气体前体的放电、消耗和击穿机制的电参数，并将这些特性与等离子沉积涂层的化学成分相关联。 我的研究计划的第二个目标将是确定驱动干细胞黏附和分化的几何参数。事实上，有几个观察结果倾向于证明细胞在微观尺度上组织它们的环境。例如，以前的研究表明，细胞在微米尺度上重组纤维连接蛋白纤维。这些观察导致了对细胞表面信号的微观结构以及从分化能力方面对单个细胞命运的影响的几项基础性研究。 最近，我的实验室证明了在材料表面联合微图案化细胞黏附和细胞增殖信号的效果，以改善细胞与材料的相互作用。我们的目标是扩展关于间充质干细胞的知识，以确定是否有可能通过材料表面细胞信号分子的适当组织来控制细胞的黏附和分化。在这种情况下，我们的策略将涉及根据不同的几何分布来模拟细胞外基质组织的细胞信号肽。这项研究可能会通过更好地理解驱动细胞分化过程的几何线索，产生对生产活组织具有特殊重要性的知识。

My research program focuses on the surface modification and characterization of biomaterials to improve their biocompatibility. My group deploys significant efforts to develop finely tuned surface functionalizations or coatings using plasma-based technologies. Plasmas are basically made of gaseous excited species which are put in contact with the surface of materials to either modify their chemical structure or cover them with a thin layer of polymerized matter. Our goal will be to master plasma processes (1) by fine tuning the surface chemistry of plasma-treated/coated materials, and (2) by limiting if not eliminating the need for further time-consuming surface characterization procedures. The first objective of my research program will center on the characteristics of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) atmospheric plasmas, namely the electrical parameters used to light up/sustain the discharge, consumption, and breakdown mechanisms of the gaseous precursor injected within the plasma, and to correlate these characteristics with the chemistry of the plasma-deposited coating. The second objective of my research program will be to identify geometrical parameters that drive stem cell adhesion and differentiation. Indeed, several observations tend to demonstrate that cells organize their surroundings at the micro scale. For instance, previous studies demonstrated that cells reorganized fibronectin fibrils at the micrometer scale. These observations led to several fundamental investigations on the micro structuration of cell signals on surfaces and the effect on the fate of a single cell in terms of it capacity to differentiate. More recently, my laboratory has evidenced the effect of jointly micropatterning cell adhesion and cell proliferation signals on the surface of materials to improve cell-material interactions. The goal is to extend this knowledge on mesenchymal stem cells to ascertain whether it is possible to control cell fate in terms of adhesion and differentiation through an appropriate organization of cell signalling molecules on the surface of materials. In this context, our strategy will involve patterning cell signalling peptides according to different geometrical distributions to mimick extracellular matrix organization. This research is likely to generate knowledge of singular importance for the production of living tissues through a greater understanding of the geometrical cues that drive the cell differentiation process.