The field of biomaterials has seen a rapid development over the past few years. A vast variety of materials are currently in routine use in the medical industry, including metals, ceramics, and polymers. Although they have excellent physical and mechanical properties, none is ideal for prolonged use in vivo due to their lack of biocompatibility.
The project involves the synthesis of libraries of biocompatible polymers. We are developing novel high throughput screening (HTS) systems for analysing the molecular weight, melting point, glass transition temperature, wettability and protein adsorption of these synthetic polymers.

General protocol for the identification of substrates for phagocytosis studies.

(A) Polymer microarray preparation; (B) microarray binding assay; (C) phagocytosis onto polymer coated coverslips

Typical protocol for cell-based assays.

(a) compounds/polymers/biomolecules to be printed are stored in 384/96 well microtitre plates, (b) molecules are arrayed onto the substrate, (c) the microarray is incubated in the media containing cells, (d) microarray is visualised and cellular interactions evaluated.

Primary tubular epithelial cells on polymer microarrays