Taking Advantage of Charge in the Design of Functional Biomaterials: From Gene Delivery Vectors to Nanofiber Drug Delivery

摘要

Synthetic macromolecules can be easily modified to contain a variety of functional elements capable of non-covalently interacting with biological systems. In our laboratories, such non-covalent interactions are being investigated in design of materials with potential applications in gene therapy, tissue engineering, and drug delivery. For gene delivery, our efforts have been focused on the influence of macromolecular topology on the electrostatic complexation and transfection of plasmid DNA with cationic polyelectrolytes. In tissue engineering materials, our laboratories have employed electrospinning of biologically-derived phospholipids and other surface active agents to produce unique nanofiber scaffolds.