(726b) Design of Biofunctionalized Surfaces Using Poly(dopamine)

Design and Fabrication of Biofunctionalized Surfaces Using Poly(dopamine)

Amit Vaish, PhD

Poly(dopamine) [PDA] was developed as a mimic to the  mussel adhesive protein. It is emerging as a universal coating material, capable of adhering to a wide array of surfaces such as metals, ceramics, and polymers. We developed facile methods for chemical modification of poly(dopamine) for creating biologically-relevant surfaces. For example, a model surface was created by the chemical functionalization of a PDA adlayer using monothiol- and dithiol-terminated short-chain ethylene oxide oligomers (OEG) in aqueous conditions. Surprisingly, dithiol-terminated OEG molecules demonstrated significant coverage on PDA surfaces, with concomitant resistance to nonspecific protein adsorption. In contrast, monothiol-terminated OEG molecules showed much lower coverage on PDA surfaces than the dithiol-terminated compounds, with subsequent lower resistance to protein adsorption. Additionally, PDA was used as a cushion to fabricate solid-supported lipid bilayer membrane on any substrate, enabling design of novel biomimetic platforms.