Functionalized Collagen Biochips

Functionalized Collagen Biochips with Core-Shell Structures and Collagen-Mimetic Peptide Nanotubes

Application

Synthetic collagen-based biomaterials for therapeutic delivery or drug testing.

Key Benefits

Synthetic collagen substitute.
Capable of formulating into various structures.
Free of animal-based contaminants.
Able to be spatially patterned.

Market Summary

Organ failure and tissue defects affect millions of Americans, resulting in significant healthcare-related expenses and morbidity. The lack of available organs and tissues for liver disease, renal failure, tissue grafts, and burns results in over 100,000 deaths yearly. Recently, tissue engineering has become a rapidly evolving field, potentially holding great promise for treating several diseases. These technologies typically comprise cells, biological, or synthetic scaffolds implanted into the patient, aiming to replace or regenerate cells, tissue, or organs to restore normal function. Collagen is the most abundant extracellular protein that is a primary component of connective tissue. It is an ideal scaffold material for cardiac patches, cosmetic surgery, bone grafts, tissue regeneration, wound healing, and many others. However, the biosynthesis of collagen is limited by low yield and insufficient control; thus, there is a need for synthetic collagen substitutes.

Technical Summary

Collagen is an ideal scaffold material for biomedical uses, however existing animal sources struggle with contamination and immunogenicity issues to address this issue the researchers developed a collagen substitute using synthesized collagen-mimetic peptides (CMPs). The core-shell assembly was constructed from a mixture of core nanosheet seeds and shell peptide monomers which are then heated at a temperature between the melting transition of core and shell triple helices and then cooled to temperatures below the melting transition of the shell peptide. Individual peptides form stable triple helices that do not form higher order structures. When the peptides are mixed at the appropriate pH nanotubes are formed in which the outer surface is defined by the charged triads, the inner surface is defined by the Pro-Hyp-Gly triads.