Shaoyi Jiang1
Cornell University1
An important challenge in many applications is the prevention of unwanted nonspecific biomolecular and microorganism attachment on surfaces. We have shown that zwitterionic materials and surfaces are highly resistant to nonspecific protein adsorption and microorganism attachment from complex media. Typical zwitterionic materials include poly(carboxybetaine), poly(sulfobetaine), poly(trimethylamine N-oxide), and glutamic acid (E) and lysine (K)-containing poly(peptides). Unlike poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), there exist diversified zwitterionic molecular structures to accommodate various properties and applications. Furthermore, zwitterionic materials are super-hydrophilic while their PEG counterparts are amphiphilic.<br/>In this talk, I will discuss the application of zwitterionic materials to implants, medical devices, stem cell cultures, and drug delivery carriers. With zwitterionic materials, coatings, hydrogels or nanoparticles, results show no capsule formation upon subcutaneous implantation in mice for one year, expansion of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) without differentiation, no anti-coagulants needed for artificial lungs in sheep, and no antibodies generated against zwitterionic polymers. I will also discuss a newly developed drug delivery system to delivery mRNAs or small molecules through the blood-brain barriers into the brain.