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Injectable Gelatin-Silk Fibroin Composite Hydrogels For In Situ Cell Encapsulation, Ryann D. Boudreau
Injectable Gelatin-Silk Fibroin Composite Hydrogels For In Situ Cell Encapsulation, Ryann D. Boudreau
Honors Theses and Capstones
Hydrogels are widely used tools for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Characterized as biofunctional, water-based polymer matrices with tunable mechanical properties, hydrogels have promising but limited applications in biomedical engineering, due to poor and static matrix strength. Here we plan to rectify this issue by introducing a new hydrogel made from a composite of gelatin and silk fibroin crosslinked by microbial transglutaminase (mTG) instantly and beta sheet formation gradually, respectively. This interpenetrating network (IPN) shows enhanced mechanical stiffness and strength compared to gelatin hydrogels, and is capable of encapsulating human cells with high viability demonstrated by the encapsulation of human …
Nature-Inspired Material Strategies Towards Functional Devices, Sayantan Pradhan
Nature-Inspired Material Strategies Towards Functional Devices, Sayantan Pradhan
Theses and Dissertations
Naturally sourced, renewable biomaterials possess outstanding advantages for a multitude of biomedical applications owing to their biodegradability, biocompatibility, and excellent mechanical properties. Of interest in this dissertation are silk (protein) and chitin (polysaccharide) biopolymers for the fabrication of functional biodevices. One of the major challenges restricting these materials beyond their traditional usage as passive substrate materials is the ability to combine them with high-resolution fabrication techniques. Initial research work is directed towards the fabrication of micropatterned, flexible 2D substrates of silk fibroin and chitin using bench-top photolithographic techniques. Research is focused on imparting electrochemical properties to silk proteins using conducting …