SGER: Fabrication of Nanoporous Membranes for Enhanced Treatment of End-Stage Renal Disease

该奖项的研究目标是制造新型纳米多孔膜，以保护肾透析患者免受加速衰老、癌症、感染易感性增加、心血管疾病和其他由过量活性氧引起的疾病。最近的研究表明，透析过程本身可以促进白细胞产生活性氧。目前提供抗氧化药物或制造活性氧清除透析膜的方法在很大程度上是不成功的。原子层沉积将被用于修饰纳米多孔氧化铝膜与新型活性氧清除剂。将进行基础研究，以确定加工参数，孔隙尺寸，化学性质和活性氧清除活性之间的关系，以便为未来的体内和临床研究开发优化的膜。这项工作的结果可能会改善终末期肾病和其他活性氧介导疾病患者的生活质量。从教育的角度来看，拟议的项目将与北卡罗来纳大学生物医学工程项目和北卡罗来纳州立大学生物制造项目的培训目标紧密结合。纳米结构生物材料研究活动的模块将放在PI？他在北卡罗来纳大学和北卡罗莱纳州立大学开设了本科和研究生课程。来自代表性不足背景的学生将被招募参加拟议的研究项目，本科生的支持来自当前资助的本科生研究经验项目。

The research objective of this award is to fabricate novel nanoporous membranes that protect kidney dialysis patients from accelerated aging, cancer, increased susceptibility to infection, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions that result from excessive amounts of reactive oxygen species. Recent studies indicate that the dialysis procedure itself can promote generation of reactive oxygen species by white blood cells. Current approaches for providing antioxidant drugs or creating reactive oxygen species-scavenging dialyzer membranes have been largely unsuccessful. Atomic layer deposition will be used to modify nanoporous alumina membranes with novel reactive oxygen species scavenging agents. Fundamental studies to determine the relationships between processing parameters, pore dimensions, chemical properties, and reactive oxygen species scavenging activity will be undertaken in order to develop optimized membranes for future in vivo and clinical studies. The results of the work can potentially lead to improved quality of life for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease and other reactive oxygen species-mediated diseases. From an educational perspective, the proposed project will be tightly integrated with the training objectives of both the biomedical engineering program at the University of North Carolina and the bio-manufacturing program at North Carolina State University. Modules on nanostructured biomaterials research activities will be placed in the PI?s undergraduate level and graduate level courses at the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University. Students from underrepresented backgrounds will be recruited to participate in the proposed research program, with undergraduate student support coming from a currently-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.