Cell compatibility of amphiphilic connetworks for biomedical applications

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Marie Weinhart
• Subject Area: Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 397384169

This subproject is concerned with the establishment of quantitative structure-property relationships of defined and carefully physicochemically characterized amphiphilic connetworks (ACN) by cell biological methods. The fully synthetic networks are prepared and investigated in the research group 2811 on the basis of heterocomplementary cross-linked star-shaped macromolecules of different philicity. Within the scope of this subproject the networks will be optimized for biomedical applications in continuous feedback loops with respect to their structural, mechanical and cell-compatible properties. Especially in the biomedical context, well-defined ACNs made of star-shaped components with precisely tunable properties are promising fully synthetic substrates for 2D and 3D cell culture, but have been little investigated so far. To identify suitable cell-compatible network components and functionally optimized crosslinked networks, e.g., drug-releasing gel coatings or growth factor-binding gels, their interaction with biologically relevant molecules as well as the cell behavior within or on top of the ACNs will be investigated and correlated with their chemical nature, type of crosslinking, network morphology as well as transport and mechanical properties, which may further be controllable via temperature or light, respectively. The subproject is supported by the preparative and experimental subprojects as well as by the theoretical subprojects of FOR 2811.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2811: Adaptive Polymer Gels with Controlled Network Structure