Great strides have been made in the area of hydrogel science since the first hydrogels were described in the 1960s. Hydrogelation occurs in response to a physical or chemical stimulus, such as temperature, pH, electric or magnetic field, enzymatic modification, light and others. These three-dimensional networks consisting of mainly water molecules represent a unique class of materials, with many applications including cell therapeutics, cartilage/bone regeneration, sustained drug release and drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, 3D bioprinting and extracellular culture medium (ECM) for cancer cells, stem cells and neuronal cells. ChemBioGels 2021 will feature on-going work in the area of hydrogel science.
Great strides have been made in the area of hydrogel science since the first hydrogels were described in the 1960s. Hydrogelation occurs in response to a physical or chemical stimulus, such as temperature, pH, electric or magnetic field, enzymatic modification, light and others. These three-dimensional networks consisting of mainly water molecules represent a unique class of materials, with many applications including cell therapeutics, cartilage/bone regeneration, sustained drug release and drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, 3D bioprinting and extracellular culture medium (ECM) for cancer cells, stem cells and neuronal cells. ChemBioGels 2021 will feature on-going work in the area of hydrogel science.
Great strides have been made in the area of hydrogel science since the first hydrogels were described in the 1960s. Hydrogelation occurs in response to a physical or chemical stimulus, such as temperature, pH, electric or magnetic field, enzymatic modification, light and others. These three-dimensional networks consisting of mainly water molecules represent a unique class of materials, with many applications including cell therapeutics, cartilage/bone regeneration, sustained drug release and drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, 3D bioprinting and extracellular culture medium (ECM) for cancer cells, stem cells and neuronal cells. ChemBioGels 2021 will feature on-going work in the area of hydrogel science.
Professor Ehud Gazit
Professor Ehud Gazit
Dr. Helena Azevedo
Expanding the versatility of self-assembling peptide hydrogels
Short Abstract:
The self-assembly ability of peptides has attracted great attention to create supramolecular hydrogels and several intriguing molecular designs and approaches have been exploited to trigger their self-assembly into functional biomaterials [1]. While peptides can offer desirable biofunctionalities, their co-assembly with non-peptide building blocks can enhance the properties of final assemblies and expand their applicability [2,3].
In this talk, I will share our work on supramolecular peptide hydrogels, showing their versatility to self-assemble in presence of molecules with biomedical interest, such as antibiotics [4] or bioactive polymers, and their applications in drug delivery and cell culture.
References
[1] Lyu Y, Azevedo HS, Supramolecular Hydrogels for Protein Delivery in Tissue Engineering, Molecules 2021, 26(4), 873.
[2] Radvar E, Azevedo HS, Supramolecular Peptide/Polymer Hybrid Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications, Macromol Biosci 2018, 1800221
[3] Radvar E, Azevedo, HS, Supramolecular Nanofibrous Peptide/Polymer Hydrogels for the Multiplexing of Bioactive Signals, ACS Biomater Sci Eng 2019, 5, 9, 4646–4656.
[4] Shi Y, Wareham DW, Yuan Y, Deng X, Mata A, Azevedo HS, Polymyxin B-Triggered Assembly of Peptide Hydrogels for Localized and Sustained Release of Combined Antimicrobial Therapy, Adv Healthc Mater 2021, DOI:10.1002/adhm.202101465.
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Short CV:
Helena S. Azevedo is a Reader in Biomedical Engineering & Biomaterials at the School of Engineering & Materials Science in Queen Mary University of London where she leads her own research group and coordinates the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Biomedical Engineering. Her work focuses on self-assembling biomaterial platforms for cell culture, drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and biosensing. She is author of >100 publications, including papers in Science, Nat Chem, Nat Comm, Adv Funct Mater, Nano Lett, Adv Health Mater, and has edited 3 books on natural-based biomaterials, self-assembling biomaterials and soft matter for biomedical application. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Member of the Advisory Board of the RSC journal Molecular Systems Design & Engineering and Associate Editor of the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (Wiley).