报告题目：Injectable and mechanically resilient supramolecular biopolymeric hydrogels for in situ tissue regeneration

报告人：边黎明 助理教授, 香港中文大学生物医学工程系

报告时间：2018年7月26日16:00-17:30

报告地点：华中科技大学东十一楼二楼大会议室

邀请人：杨祥良 教授， 李子福 教授

Although biopolymer-based chemical hydrogels, with biopolymers covalently crosslinked, have been widely used as scaffolds for tissue engineering due to good stability, their permanent network structures and brittleness limit their applications in repairing load-bearing tissues, such as cartilage. In contrast, biopolymer-based supramolecular hydrogels, which are usually formed via self-assembly of physically interacting biopolymers, are usually weak as shown in “inverted vials” instead of freestanding 3D constructs and less stable than chemical hydrogels. Herein, we describe a novel host-guest macromer (HGM) approach for preparation of biopolymer-based freestanding supramolecular hydrogels. Such hydrogels are solely crosslinked by in situ formed multivalent host-guest nano-clusters, and show significantly reinforced mechanical properties yet still retain desirable supramolecular features. They can self-heal and be re-molded into freestanding 3D constructs which afford effective protection on the encapsulated stem cells during the compression re-molding, making them promising carriers for therapeutic cells that can quickly adapt to and integrate with surrounding tissues of the targeted defects. We demonstrate that such hydrogels supported in situ tissue regeneration via the delivery of therapeutic cells and drugs. Lastly, we have developed a series of supramolecular hydrogels with unique properties such as resilient mechanical property, fast relaxation, self-healing, bioadhesiveness, injectability, and promoting recruitment of endogenous cells. These hydrogel properties are not only desirable for potential clinical applications of these hydrogels but also useful for studying the effect of microenvironmental mechanical cues on stem cell behaviors.

边教授分别与 2002 年及2004 年在新加坡国立大学获得本科学士及生物工程硕士学位.2004 年赴美哥伦比亚大学生物医学工程学系继续攻读博士学位。2009 年获博士学位后，在宾夕法尼亚大学生物工程学系进行博士后研究。2012 年夏开始就职于香港中文大学。边教授研究的主要方向是生物支架材料及纳米生物材料的设计及在干细胞组织工程方面的应用。具体的研究方向有仿生生物材料的设计开发，细胞微环境信息对干细胞行为的影响，多功能水凝胶的设计，纳米结构用于生物配体微观呈递，干细胞组织工程等。边教授的科研成果发表在“PNAS”，“Biomaterials”，“Nano letters”，“Advanced Functional Materials”, “JACS”,“ACS Nano”, “Macromolecules”，“Chemistry of Materials”等学术期刊杂志。

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