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. Ricardo Pires
Carbohydrate-based supramolecular assemblies: from anti-cancer strategies to tissue engineering and regeneration
Short Abstract:
Proteins and glycans are essential components of cells and tissues that are responsible for the coding and transfer of bioinformation. Their bioactivity is exerted through their chemical composition, adequate conformation and/or nanosized morphological presentation. Importantly, under physiological conditions, proteins/glycans are dynamic in what regards to their conformation, as well as the promotion of protein-protein or protein-glycan interactions. In addition, it is well known that protein-glycan interactions are ubiquitous in the cellular environment and usually associated with increased protein bioactivity and biostability. In the last decade, peptide amphiphiles (PAs) have been reported to mimic proteins from the extracellular space in terms of their chemical/nanomorphological presentation and ability to encode bioinformation. They are able to form dynamic and responsive supramolecular structures, e.g., nanofibers, through unidirectional assembly governed by different non-covalent interactions, namely, Pi-Pi stacking, H-bonding and hydrophobic effects. While there is strong evidence that PA-based systems can be used for different biomedical applications, the use of carbohydrate amphiphiles (CA) is still at its infancy. However, some reports already show that they are able to be used as glycan mimics and copycat some of their important bioactivities, e.g., storage depots for proteins, etc. I will give an overview of our recent developments on the use of CAs: on their own; through their non-covalent combination with PAs (i.e., core-shell systems); or their chemical conjugation with PAs, i.e., PA-CA. It will be shown that these systems can be tuned for different biomedical applications, from biocatalytic localized anti-cancer therapy to hydrogels for regenerative medicine.
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Short CV:
Ricardo A. Pires graduated in Chemistry from the University of Lisbon (1998) and has a PhD in Materials Engineering from the Technical University of Lisbon (2004). He has worked in the use of natural-based compounds as anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory agents. Since 2010, he is an Assistant Researcher at the 3B’s Research Group, working in biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. His main research interests are related to the development of 2D and 3D cancer models; the design of supramolecular hydrogels generated by the self-assembling of short peptide and carbohydrate amphiphiles that can mimic the proteins/proteoglycans from the extracellular matrix; and the modulation of protein aggregation driven by self-assembly, e.g. amyloids. He presents an h-index of 17, published 58 papers, 4 patents, 6 conference proceedings, 5 book chapters and approx. 100 conference communications. He published his work in high-impact international journals, such as JACS, Chem Sci, Chem and others.