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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Crafting Nanostructured Neural Interfaces With Hydrogel Particles, Emily Ann Morin Aug 2017

Crafting Nanostructured Neural Interfaces With Hydrogel Particles, Emily Ann Morin

Doctoral Dissertations

Central nervous system neural device functionality hinges on effective communication with surrounding neurons. This depends on both the permissiveness of the device material to promote neuron integration and the ability of the device to avoid a chronic inflammatory response. Here, a facile approach has been developed exploring the multiple functionalities of hydrogel particles to provide cues to impart neural integration for such materials. Three distinct, yet interconnected tasks were undertaken: investigating hydrogel particle-modified substrate neuron integration and central nervous system inflammatory response, investigating guided hydrogel particle adsorption, and investigating hydrogel particles as local reservoirs for counteracting adverse effects from oxidative …


Ultrasonically Responsive Tissue Engineering Scaffolds For The Temporal Control Over Osteo-Inductive Growth Factor Delivery, Catherine Linh May 2017

Ultrasonically Responsive Tissue Engineering Scaffolds For The Temporal Control Over Osteo-Inductive Growth Factor Delivery, Catherine Linh

Senior Honors Projects

In 2012, approximately 6.8 million people in the United States were diagnosed with orthopedic injuries or diseases. Over 500,000 people in the United States underwent bone grafting procedures, which cost 2.5 billion dollars per year and can result in complications. Polymer-based grafting scaffolds can facilitate 3D bone tissue growth in a localized, sustained manner. However, bone regeneration requires the orchestration of a sequence of events. Current scaffolds based on degradation and diffusion cannot provide sequential deliveries. We aimed to design a polymer scaffold that can release one payload diffusively at early time points, followed by ultrasonically triggered release of a …


Patient-Derived Hydrogel As A Sacrificial Matrix For Efficient Cell Loading, Shalmli U. Joshi Apr 2017

Patient-Derived Hydrogel As A Sacrificial Matrix For Efficient Cell Loading, Shalmli U. Joshi

Honors Scholar Theses

The field of tissue engineering focuses on delivering patient-derived stem cells to the body through the use of degradable biomaterials, such as hydrogels, which are infused into engineered scaffolds. Hydrogels act as templates to support and guide cells towards the regeneration of new tissue. In this study, we introduce a completely intraoperative procedure for obtaining a fibrin hydrogel for tissue engineering applications. In the past, fibrin hydrogel has been commonly formed by combining fibrinogen protein with animal-derived thrombin. Instead, we have developed an automated, and therefore reproducible, protocol to isolate and form fibrin hydrogel without the use of animal-derived thrombin. …


Polysaccharide Fabrication Platforms And Biocompatibility Assessment As Candidate Wound Dressing Materials, Donald C. Aduba Jr., Hu Yang Mar 2017

Polysaccharide Fabrication Platforms And Biocompatibility Assessment As Candidate Wound Dressing Materials, Donald C. Aduba Jr., Hu Yang

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Wound dressings are critical for wound care because they provide a physical barrier between the injury site and outside environment, preventing further damage or infection. Wound dressings also manage and even encourage the wound healing process for proper recovery. Polysaccharide biopolymers are slowly becoming popular as modern wound dressings materials because they are naturally derived, highly abundant, inexpensive, absorbent, non-toxic and non-immunogenic. Polysaccharide biopolymers have also been processed into biomimetic platforms that offer a bioactive component in wound dressings that aid the healing process. This review primarily focuses on the fabrication and biocompatibility assessment of polysaccharide materials. Specifically, fabrication platforms …


3d Bioprinting Hydrogel For Tissue Engineering An Ascending Aortic Scaffold, Benjamin Stewart Jan 2017

3d Bioprinting Hydrogel For Tissue Engineering An Ascending Aortic Scaffold, Benjamin Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The gold standard in 2016 for thoracic aortic grafts is Dacron®, polyethylene terephthalate, due to the durability over time, the low immune response elicited and the propensity for endothelialization of the graft lumen over time. These synthetic grafts provide reliable materials that show remarkable long term patency. Despite the acceptable performance of Dacron® grafts, it is noted that autographs still outperform other types of vascular grafts when available due to recognition of the host's cells and adaptive mechanical properties of a living graft. 3-D bioprinting patient-specific scaffolds for tissue engineering (TE) brings the benefits of non-degrading synthetic …


Design Of Robust Hydrogel Based On Mussel-Inspired Chemistry, Yuan Liu Jan 2017

Design Of Robust Hydrogel Based On Mussel-Inspired Chemistry, Yuan Liu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The structure of catechol is found in mussel adhesive proteins and contributed to both wet-resistant adhesion and cohesive curing of these proteins. A synthetic nano-silicate, Laponite was incorporated into catechol-containing hydrogels and the hydrogel network-bound catechol formed strong reversible interfacial interaction with Laponite. The contribution of incorporated catechol-Laponite reversible interfacial interactions to the mechanics of hydrogels constructed by different strategies was studied. In the first strategy, Laponite and catechol were introduced into the double network hydrogel (DN) via the free radical co-polymerization of a catechol-containing monomer, backbone monomer, and crosslinker. The introduction of catechol-Laponite interactions significantly improved the compressive strength …


Modified Pamam Dendrimers In Tunable Drug-Delivery Systems: A Sustained-Release Dendrimer Hydrogel For Anti-Glaucoma Drugs And Surface-Engineered Macrophages As Nanoparticle Carriers For Targeted Anti-Cancer Therapy, Christopher A. Holden Jan 2017

Modified Pamam Dendrimers In Tunable Drug-Delivery Systems: A Sustained-Release Dendrimer Hydrogel For Anti-Glaucoma Drugs And Surface-Engineered Macrophages As Nanoparticle Carriers For Targeted Anti-Cancer Therapy, Christopher A. Holden

Theses and Dissertations

Two specific drug-delivery applications were sought in this work using polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers. One drug-delivery system used a novel dendrimer hydrogel (DH) for sustained delivery of anti-glaucoma drugs. In this work, PAMAM G3.0 dendrimers were covalently bonded with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG­12000) molecules which were subsequently acrylated, resulting in photocurable DH conjugates. For pharmacological studies, DH were loaded with a solution of intraocular pressure lowering drugs, brimonidine and timolol maleate, and were characterized for in vitro release and ex vivo transport and uptake. DH formulations were shown to increase the loading of drug molecules, increase transcorneal drug delivery, and …