Biomaterials
Biomaterials are materials that are designed to function when in contact with biological systems. In our research we combine different de novo designed peptides with both synthetic polymers and biopolymers, including bacterial cellulose, collagen, hyaluronic acid, and polyethylene glycol, for fabrication of innovative soft biomaterials. By exploiting biorthogonal covalent crosslinking reactions and self-assembling peptides we are currently developing novel peptide-hybrid materials for applications in 3D cell culture, biomineralization, drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Furthermore, we also combine different fibrous polymer meshes with other functional components (e.g. electrically conducting- and antimicrobial polymers) to realise biomaterials for cardiac regeneration and advanced wound care applications.
Current main projects
Self-assembling peptide-polymer hybrid biomaterials
By utilizing our expertise in dimerizing α-helical peptides, we create highly tunable self-assembling biomaterials for applications such as 3D cell culture.
Bio-orthogonal and modular assembling biomaterials
By grafting bio-orthogonal click chemistry moieties onto both natural– and synthetic polymers, we create highly modular and tunable biomaterials for applications such as 3D cell culture and regenerative medicine.
Bacterial cellulose for advance wound care
Short project text here
Selected publications
R. Selegård, C. Aronsson, C. Brommesson, S. Dånmark, D. Aili, "Folding driven self-assembly of a stimuli-responsive peptide-hyaluronan hybrid hydrogel", Sci. Rep., 2017, Accepted.
A. Wickham, M. Vagin, H. Khalaf, S. Bertazzo, P. Hodder, S. Dånmark, T. Bengtsson, J. Altimiras, D. Aili, "Electroactive Biomimetic Collagen-Silver Nanowire Composite Scaffolds", Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 14146-14155.
S. Dånmark, C. Aronsson, D. Aili, "Tailoring Supramolecular Peptide-Poly(ethylene glycol) Hydrogels by Coiled Coil Self-Assembly and Self-Sorting", Biomacromolecules, 2016, 17, 2260-2267.
A. Wickham, D. Sjölander, G. Bergström, E. Wang, V. Rajendran, C. Hildesjö, K. Skoglund, K. P. R. Nilsson, D. Aili, “Near-Infrared Emitting and Pro-Angiogenic Electrospun Conjugated Polymer Scaffold for Optical Biomaterial Tracking”, Adv. Funct. Mater., 2015, 25, 4274-4281.