Non-technical: This award by the Biomaterials program in the Division of Materials Research to the University of Texas at Austin is to develop a novel class of self-assembling, peptide-based hydrogel scaffolds with the unique advantages of biologic compatibility, degradability and the ability to incorporate cells in a spatially defined manner. This award is co-funded by BioMaPS funds in the Division of Materials Research, and the Biomedical Engineering program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems. An ideal tissue engineering scaffold would possess the properties of being adhesive and supportive to living cells, degradable by the body and compatible with living tissues. Furthermore, such a scaffold should be easily processable into 3D configurations, and this is ideally performed in the presence of living cells. This project would develop a novel class of hydrogels prepared from molecules known as depsipeptides. This award will study the spontaneous self-assembly of these small molecules into self-supporting hydrogels when patterned using focused ultrasound. These hydrogels are expected to fulfill all of the requirements of an ideal tissue scaffold. The cell-interactive hydrogel scaffolds have increasingly been explored for use in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, particularly those that can both self-assemble and mimic the biological features of structural proteins. The planned educational and outreach activities include: 1) development of a learning-centered framework with instructional modules; 2) support and mentor the UTeachEngineering Master of Arts program in the campus in the area of biomaterials; and 3) develop hands-on outreach activities to serve high school students.
With this award, this researcher will study self-assembling depsipeptides, also known as ester amides. This system makes use of two molecular regions of the peptide: a hydrophobic tail to control assembly; and a hydrophilic depsipeptide oligomer which confers biologic activity and degradability. These molecules can self-assemble into different ordered structures including nanoparticles and fibrous, hydrogel scaffolds. The side chains can be varied among a wide range of chemical groups, resulting in a family of molecules with a host of possible bioactivities. The current proposal seeks to synthesize depsipeptide analogs of the canonical Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid sequence, an ubiquitous amino acid motif known to bind cell integrins to mediate cell adhesion and interaction with the extracellular matrix. Furthermore, due to the unique kinetics of this self-assembly, the project will utilize a focused ultrasound transducer to produce patterned, cell-laden and tissue engineered constructs. This work will develop a unique platform to explore the rational design of materials for applications in tissue engineering, where a microstructured and degradable material is needed with biologic specificity. The proposed studies are unique in that they offer a tailorable platform for the precise definition of cell and tissue responses, and the design strategy could be broadly applied for the development of other biomaterials. The overall educational goal of this proposal is to develop a learning-centered framework of outreach and instructional modules specifically geared around biomaterials education, and hands-on outreach activities to serve high school students.
