Engineering bioinspired beta-glucan scaffolds with membrane interfaces for drug targeting and delivery

This project combines multidisciplinary approaches, bridging biology and soft polymer physics, to deliver new biocompatible synthetic systems as programmable environments for applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering. These synthetic scaffolds will be designed using beta-glucan components, naturally found in the cell walls of plants and microbes. These scaffolds will support membranous interfaces to generate water and lipid biphasic systems of different fluidity, porosity and mechanical properties.
The scaffolds will be studied for their physical properties, biocompatibility and capacity for drug uptake and delivery in variable environments. This will produce new knowledge on the mechanisms underpinning the behaviours of biological cell wall-membranes interfaces and new scaffolds for drug targeting, to engineer tissues and/or biological sensors. Integration of the information obtained from hydrogel characterization will enable new predictions and unveil new opportunities for these natural scaffolds.