FARIA Project: Bio-Based Materials Applied to Biomedicine

Expertise Sought

Research groups/companies: currently working on biomedical applications with specific challenges/problems that could be solved with bio-based materials and our capabilities in label-free imaging and interaction measurements
Partners from the biomedical field that are eligible to apply for AKA/NIH funding in the future

Exploring the use of plant-based materials in biomedical applications, such as drug and gene delivery and tissue engineering.
The inherent properties of bio-based materials—such as cellulose nanofibrils, bark extracts, or lignin—offer interesting opportunities for various biomedical applications.
On material development, our competences include, for example, producing hydrogels from purely plant-based sources with controlled stiffness and producing plant-based foams and films with, for example, antimicrobial properties.
We have extensively studied lignin nanoparticles and their use in various applications such as emulsions, adhesives, coatings, and energy storage but also for encapsulation and release of drugs.
In addition to material development, we can quantitatively study (specific) interactions between materials and living cells using AFM force measurements and/or QCM-D and image materials and cells in liquid media (all label free methods).
With these methods we have shown that stem cells proliferate in cellulose nanofibril hydrogels without differentiation due to lack of specific interactions with cellulose. Adsorbing certain proteins (for example, laminin) to CNF surface leads to strong specific interactions.