Bioactive material surfaces

这个项目的重点是了解和控制细胞和生物材料表面之间发生的相互作用。根据我的实验室正在进行的研究，我们建议在这里构建各种化学受控的平台，以了解简单官能团和粘附肽与蛋白质和不同类型细胞之间的相互作用。利用非破坏性和生物相容的化学，我们建议从修改模型二维表面开始，并将所获得的结果转化为用于硬组织和软组织再生的三维支架。这里的最终目标是制备一种能够吸引和刺激每个隔室中不同类型细胞的活动的复合支架。在相同的策略中，我们还建议测试基于骨软骨骨化和石墨烯的两种非传统的骨再生方法。总的新颖性和优势在于使用一种简单且几乎通用的表面修饰技术来比较简单化学基团和来自细胞自然相互作用的细胞外基质的粘附肽的效果。这种方法将导致对材料/细胞相互作用的基本理解的重要进展，以及一套易于移植到临床和市场的平台。例如，二维表面可以立即用作新的基质来加强细胞培养；由于使用了FDA批准的材料，支架可以在相对较短的时间内应用于临床。用最具创新性的策略制备的材料在短期内可能无法翻译，但有可能产生一种颠覆性的骨组织工程新方法。 因此，总体而言，该计划将提出治疗非自愈性骨缺损的新选择。目前主要是通过自体移植来治疗这些疾病，即从同一患者的另一个位置移植组织，这会使感染的风险增加一倍，并经常导致供体和受体部位的不适。这一进展将影响世界上每年需要这种治疗的350多万人，并减轻与此相关的数十亿美元的支出，特别是在加拿大等人口老龄化的工业化国家。 在该项目期间，将培训3名博士生、1名PDF和8名本科生，他们将暴露在高度跨学科的环境中，经常与行业互动。我以前的HQP出版物的质量和数量，以及他们在与其专业知识高度相关的职位上的成功安置，证实了这种培训方法的有效性，以及所有受训人员未来在学术界或工业界取得出色职业生涯的可能性。

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.