The Contractor will continue to optimize chemistries for improvements of additional dialysis materials. The Contractor will enlarge his repertoire of surface-modification reagents to include those with anticoagulant and antimicrobial activities, surface-modify various types of dialysis fibers with these new derivatives, the test the patency and equilibration times required for efficient collection of model peptides in an in vitro system. Following this, dialysis fibers will be implanted in an animal model (the rat) and the delivery and collection of model peptides (basis, acidic, and hydrophobic) will be measured over a period of weeks.
