(2di) Post-Doctoral Candidate: Protein-Based Biomaterials for Biomedical Applications

Proteins play critical and unique roles in practically all functions of organisms. Elastin’s reversible elasticity allows lungs to continuously expand and contract for decades to allow us to breathe. Collagen’s superior mechanical strength supports the extracellular matrix of tissues in the body. Proteins found in marine mussels anchor the mussels to surfaces in extremely turbulent underwater environments. In my graduate work, I use bioinspired protein-based components to design novel biomaterials for biomedical applications.

Recombinant Protein-Based Surgical Lung Sealants: Supported by my NSF graduate research fellowship and my Leslie Bottorff fellowship for clinical translation, I designed surgical lung sealant formulations to prevent the dangerous occurrence of air leaks after a lung surgery. A surgical lung sealant needs to be both pliable to prevent lung tissue fibrosis and adhesive in a moist physiological environment – a tough criteria that no commercially available surgical sealant has met. I modified recombinant elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) with a bioinspired mussel adhesive moiety, L-3,4-dihydroxyphenalalanine (DOPA). The ELP in my formulation confered elasticity suited to match the elasticity in lung tissues, whereas DOPA confered wet adhesion to the material. Formulations achieved burst pressures at least 19 times greater than the transpulmonary pressures the lungs withstand. The formulations were elastic and had no long-term swelling that would damage the tissue or alter the adhesion properties. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the DOPA-modified ELP as an elastic surgical lung sealant.

In Vitro Protein-Based Tissue Models for Biologics Bioavailability: In collaboration with other researchers at Purdue University and Eli Lilly and Company, I designed in vitro tissue models to characterize large molecule drug diffusion and recovery for early-stage biologics development. The models are based on collagen and hyaluronic acid (HA), two major biopolymers that impact large molecule diffusion and recovery in tissues. I incorporated aldehyde- and hydrazide-modified HA that crosslinks when combined, called HAX, into a collagen network to form hybrid ColHAX hydrogels. Changing the concentrations of collagen and HAX greatly impacts the hydrogel microstructure, swelling capacity, stiffness, and diffusion/recovery profile. Because the material properties of ColHAX hydrogels span a large space, these hybrid gels are used to model tissues as diverse as soft as subcutaneous tissue and as stiff as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumor tissue.

Designing a Chemical Engineering Outreach Activity for High School Women with a Biomedical Polymer: Women obtain a disproportionately low percentage of chemical engineering degrees compared to their representation in the general population. To address this gap, I developed a chemical engineering outreach activity for young women focused on the biomedical applications of polymers to introduce non-traditional chemical engineering fields. Surveys were given to students before and after the activity to evaluate effectiveness. After the activity, students agreed with the statements “I am interested in chemical engineering,” and “Chemical engineers help people,” significantly more. Additionally, there was better alignment between students’ aspirations and chemical engineering as a result of the activity.

Surgical sealants and biologics development make up two facets in the biomedical industry that can benefit from nature-inspired protein-based biomaterials. Biomaterials can both inspire underrepresented communities to pursue chemical engineering and help underserved populations through engineered solutions. In my future research, I hope to utilize my skills developing materials for biomedical applications to address health disparities in underserved communities through tissue engineering or the development of low-cost point of care diagnostics.