Join us for our first Bioengineering Department Seminar of the spring semester:

“Macromolecular Material Systems as Synthetic Cellular Transducers”

Dr. Herdeline (Digs) Ardoña
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
with joint appointments in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry
UC Irvine

Wednesday, March 11
12noon – 1:00pm
Stanley Hall, Room 177

Abstract:
Signaling in physiological environments relies on ion currents, biomolecular exchange, and other physical cues, all of which are processed by cellular machinery to elicit a specific response. This presentation will focus on the development of macromolecular organic materials as ‘transducer biomaterials’—materials capable of converting external or cell-mediated biophysical cues to stimulatory, regenerative cues or as sensory output signals—for electroactive living systems. Specifically, molecular engineering and fabrication approaches for endowing these systems with the order-dependent ability to convert exogenous optical, electronic, mechanical or chemical cues at the interface with excitable cells will be discussed. Soft lithography, nanoimprinting, surface templating, and light-based micropatterning techniques are leveraged to introduce topographical confinement effects on the self-assembly of optoelectronic peptide units on inorganic lattices or polymeric surfaces, consequently leading to tissue anisotropy. We elucidated the dependence of specificity of these surface-based assembly cues on the molecular design and size of the assembly units, as well as supramolecular distance to surface lattice matching. The peptide-polymer or organic-inorganic hybrid surfaces resulting from the templating process are capable of generating photocurrents upon excitation of the functionalized peptides. Additionally, stabilization of these assemblies on conductive polymer film substrates or as hydrogels can be achieved via surface conjugation chemistries. Through these efforts, we have unraveled new insights on macromolecular assembly on surfaces, as well as how cardiomyocytes perceive the sub-micron dimensionality, local molecular order, and other surface cues from their immediate environment. Lastly, this presentation will cover biohybrid platforms of cardiac and brain models where the sequence-/chemical design-tunable polymeric or supramolecular assembly interface can transduce light to stimulate tissue function or drive spatial heterogeneity of model tissues. Overall, we envision these design-programmable and ordered transducer macromolecular systems towards promoting stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte maturation, facilitating regenerative processes, and advancing the capabilities of engineered tissue constructs for in vitro modeling applications.