Immune-directing polymeric biomaterials and coatings

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Harnessing the power of the body's immune system using implantable materials will result in new discoveries and expedite the improvement of current therapies. Our understanding of the immune system's communication with implantable biomaterials is rapidly expanding, allowing us to hinder or promote pathways for therapeutic benefit. To this end, we are developing materials that alter local environments to control immune cell activities for applications ranging from cancer immunotherapies to medical implant surface coatings. Specifically, we will develop the tools necessary to localize proteins at disease sites and modify implant surfaces to alter immune cell populations and activities. To locally control immune responses, we require delivery strategies for highly potent yet potentially toxic proteins. Using our expertise in protein therapeutics and biomolecule interactions, we are developing delivery vehicles for injection at the disease site to sustain protein release and prevent toxic systemic concentrations. The vehicles will bind to structural components surrounding cells at the disease site to minimize the amount of foreign injected material; the disease tissue will be used as a drug depot. This technology will be used to delivery proteins that alter the local immune cell populations for applications in cancer immunotherapy. Moreover, the platform technology could also be used to elucidate new methods to control immune responses and contribute to any therapy requiring local protein delivery, such as retinal degenerative diseases. For long term medical implants, we require surfaces that control the local immune response and inflammation. To this end, we are developing new surface coatings to prevent unwanted interactions after implantation, as well as providing the technology to create immune-directing polymer coatings for greater control. Our technology will increase the density of polymer coatings to discourage deleterious reactions after implantation. Furthermore, the polymers can be tuned to encourage advantageous interactions to extend the lifetime of implant function. Anticipated Outcomes. We will establish new immune-directing materials for the delivery of proteins towards improving current immunotherapies and establish new methods for enhanced immune-directing coatings on medical device surfaces. Beyond the potential discovery and improvement of therapies, our program will contribute towards the establishment of data sets to better elucidate the influence of materials on immune responses, which will lead to the next generation of materials for therapeutic interventions and discovery. Benefits to Canada. With equitable and inclusive recruitment strategies, we will train a diverse team of high quality personnel as leaders in immune-directing biomaterials to contribute to the rapidly growing academic and industrial biotechnology fields within Canada.