Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: Biopolymers and Biomaterials (with CPP)

BP 10.1: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 09:30–10:00, H 1058

Surface topology effect on cell interaction at the nanoscale — •Giuseppe Battaglia — Department of Biomedical Science, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

One of the most important classes of synthetic systems for creating self-assembled nanostructures is amphiphilic block copolymers. By controlling the architecture of individual molecules, it is possible to generate nanostructures either in an undiluted melt or in solution. These ordered nanostructures are tunable over a broad variety of morphologies, ranging from discrete micelles and vesicles to continuous network structures. Their synthetic nature allows the design of interfaces with different chemical functional groups and geometrical properties. This, in combination with molecular architecture, determines the levels of ordering in self-organizing polymeric materials. Such an effective control is extremely beneficial when it comes to design materials that have to interact with biological systems. I will be discussing how block copolymers can be used for the design of nanoscopic vectors that go across different biological barriers from the thick tissues to the very cell interior to deliver therapeutic agents and/or diagnostic probes. Similarly exploiting the facile interface engineering of block copolymers I will show how these can be used to design functional interfaces for polymeric scaffolds for cell and tissue engineering.