BIOMATERIALS and MEDICAL DEVICES

The focus of our research group is to design and synthesis, discover, modify and adapt biocompatabile materials for biomedical applications. These include synthetic and natural biomaterials and nano-biomaterials including proteins and polysaccharides. Bacterial cellulose, a natural nano-biomaterial produced via microbial fermentation with a primary fibril diameter of ~10 nm, has been investigated extensively. The newest addition to our biomaterials of research is transgenic spider silk. It is expressed in the milk of genetically engineered goats making use of the genes identified that are responsible for the production of spider silk proteins. Biomedical applications of interest range from implantable devices in the cardiovascular system to wound dressing for the promotion of healing of the chronic wound and wound infection control. One aspect of medical device is the bioactive medical devices that incorporate the controlled release/drug delivery function to promote the desirable clinical outcomes (e.g. drug eluting coronary stent). Tissue engineering in custom designed bioreactor and in situ tissue regeneration using the human body as the bioreactor are also being actively pursued. Both adult and multi-potent stem cells are used.

The inter-relationship among these areas of research can be seen in the following chart: