The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support a twenty-two-month research fellowship by Dr. John D. Bass to work with Dr. Clement Sanchez at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France.
The ability to design effective interfaces between biological and synthetic materials has an enormous impact on a diverse field of problems including biosensing, medical implants, drug production, and environmental remediation. This research centers on the design and synthesis of metal oxide films with well-defined nanostructure for the production of functional biomaterials. Specifically, we focus on the subject of bone repair/replacement materials where the interface between bio and inorganic materials plays a key role in determining cell viability, adhesion, and devise functionality. The utility of such an approach stems from our ability to control the properties of the film substrate such as the composition, nanostructure, mesoporosity, crystallinity, and wall thickness during synthesis in order to optimize the interactions with cell surfaces. Additionally, we use methods to post-synthetically control chemical properties of the film such as the hydrophobicity, charge, and acidity of the surface. Such unique control at various stages of manufacture and over multiple hierarchical length scales makes these materials ideal substrates for investigating the interface between biological and synthetic materials.
Dr. Sanchez and his group are known for developing novel nanostructured films spanning metal oxides to more complex nanocrystalline multi-metal-oxides. He is director of the Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matiere Condensee (CMC), which focuses on bio-mineral interfaces and biomaterials.
