Development of biomimetic endothelial surfaces
My research focus is to develop an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms involved in blood-biomaterial interactions and addresses the hypothesis that the hemocompatibility of biomaterials is at least in part dependent on the adsorption and activation of specific plasma proteins. Both EPCR and hTM are components of the endothelium that control and regulate the thrombotic events on the native endothelium (schematically shown in Figure 1).
My interest is in the preparation of surfaces that mimic the anticoagulant components of the native endothelium. While biomedical grade polyurethane (PU) has been surface modified to enable the covalent immobilization of proteins, my laboratory has designed a novel methodology (a patent non-disclosure has been filed) to surface modify PU by grafting a “Y-shaped fork” on the PU backbone that affords the sequential and directed immobilization of two proteins (Figure 2).
