MAPing Principles, Properties and Applications to Tissue Regeneration

Microporous annealed particle (MAP) scaffolds are materials composed of hydrogel microparticle (HMP) building blocks. Thus, rather than use polymers as the building block that form the hydrogel, we use particles. This makes MAP scaffolds granular materials, which open unique properties such as inner porosity, exterior porosity, injectability, and heterogeneity. We have found that these properties make MAP uniquely suited for applications in tissue regeneration applications. We have found that simple changes in the MAP composition can have dramatic changes in the immune response to the material and subsequent regenerative healing response. This talk will cover the concept of MAP, software that we have developed to understand MAP microstructure, and some of our findings that relate the immune response and regenerative healing.