9807287 Stewart The objective of this project is to create responsive hydrogels by crosslinking synthetic water-soluble polymers with well-characterized protein domains. These hydrogels will be unique because their environmental responsiveness will be determined or modulated by the protein crosslinks, which may give the hydrogels properties particularly useful for controlled drug delivery applications. This project could lead to a new class of hydrogels with novel responses to environmental stimuli; responses that can be fine-tuned using molecular genetics to adjust the crosslink structure. In the area of drug delivery, the greatest impact of titin-crosslinked hydrogels may be their potential as pulsed-release drug carriers. Whereas most current approaches for pulsed drug delivery require an external signal to trigger drug release, a hydrogel with a stepped swelling transition would result in a periodic rise and fall of drug release as a result of the intrinsic chemical and physical properties of the hydrogel. ***
