Dr Sankha Bhowmick: Mechanical Engineering Department
    Dr Sukalyan Sengupta: Civil and Environmental Engineering
    Dr Vijay Chalivendra: Mechanical Engineering
    Dr Steve Warner: Textiles and Materials
    Dr Alex Fowler: Mechanical Engineering
    Dr Paul Calvert: Materials and Textiles

    Bio and Environmental Advanced Materials

    Ion- Exchange Filter: Synthesis of IXF with carboxylic acid as the functional group for weak-acid cation exchange and picolyl-amine as the functional group for weak-base anion exchange. Polystyrene, polystyrene mixed with polyisoprene, and polyethyleneimine (PEI) will be considered as the base polymers for the exchanger matrix to be produced by electrospinning. We will characterize each species of IXF synthesized by SEM, EDS, and FTIR. This will confirm if indeed all the functional groups are on the surface of the IXF. We will also evaluate mechanical strength of each species of IXF synthesized.

    Biomolecule tethering on Electrospun Scaffolds: The overall goal of this study is to find optimal structures for directionally growing cells for patterned tissue engineering as well as tethering specific biomolecules for possible drug delivery application. We shall use specific macromolecules like RGD peptides or other peptide sequences and adhere them selectively on the electrospun scaffolds. Stable linking of RGD peptides to a surface is essential to promote strong cell adhesion, because formation of focal adhesions only occurs if the ligands withstand the cells contractile forces. For our application, in order to functionalize PCL with RGD, we will use two methods. One is through amino-functionalized through allylamine pulsed plasma deposition (PPD) and then followed by coupling of RGD modified PEG chains. The other avenue is to treat the electrospun PCL scaffold so as to embed an amphiphilic moiety (DSPE-PEG) and then graft with the RGD. We shall then use AFM to characterize the adhesion force of these molecules on the membrane. AFM can be successfully used to determine adhesive forces due to covalent bonding between the molecules by chemically modifying the AFM probe. After immobilization of RGD peptides on PCL, we shall study cellstudy cell adhesion and proliferation on PCL scaffolds.

    Contact:
    Dr Sankha Bhowmick: sbhowmick@umassd.edu