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Polymer-based hydrogels have been widely applied for chronic wound therapeutics, due to their well-acclaimed wound exudate management capability. At the same time, there is still an unmet clinical need for simple wound diagnostic tools to…
The creation of hyaluronic acid (HA)-based materials as biomineralisation scaffolds for cost-effective hard tissue regenerative therapies remains a key biomedical challenge. A non-toxic and simple acellular method to generate specific…
Medical devices with matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) modulating functionality are highly desirable to restore tissue homeostasis in critical inflammation states, such as chronic wounds, rotator cuff tears and cancer. The introduction of…
Regulating the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is a potential strategy for osteoarthritis (OA) therapy, although delivering this effect in a spatially and temporally localised fashion remains a challenge. Here, we report an…
Implantable hydrogels should ideally possess mechanical properties matched to the surrounding tissues to enable adequate mechanical function while regeneration occurs. This can be challenging, especially when degradable systems with high…
Chemical crosslinking of collagen is a general strategy to reproduce macroscale tissue properties in physiological environment. However, simultaneous control of protein conformation, material properties and biofunctionality is highly…
Hyaluronan, a sugar polymer found outside the plasma membrane, is a critical component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold. Hyaluronan's length and moderate negative charge aid in ECM entanglement and solubility. This allows it to…
Aggregation and other interactions are suppressed for a biological semiflexible polyelectrolyte, hyaluronan (HA), when it is embedded in a mixture with another negatively charged and flexible polyelectrolyte chain, sodium polystyrene…
We study by Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) the structure of Hyaluronan -Lysozyme complexes. Hyaluronan (HA) is a polysaccharide of 9 nm intrinsic persistence length that bears one negative charge per disaccharide monomer (Mmol =…
Hyaluronic acid is an abundant polyelectrolyte in the human body that forms extracellular hydrogels in connective tissues. It is essential for regulating tissue biomechanics and cell-cell communication, yet hyaluronan overexpression is…
Controlling the viscoelastic properties of hydrogels is a challenge for many applications. Low molecular weight gelators (LMWG) like bile salts and glycolipids, and biopolymers like chitosan and alginate, are good candidates for developing…
UV-cured collagen-based hydrogels hold promise in skeletal muscle regeneration due to their soft elastic properties and porous architecture. However, the complex triple helix conformation of collagen and environmental conditions, i.e.…
Healthy articular cartilage has excellent lubricating properties, with friction coefficients reaching extremely low values at physiological pressures. Such high-performing lubricating layer in joints is attributed to the surface hydration…
With the increasing demand for personalized health monitoring, wearable sensors have gained attention in medical diagnostics and physiological tracking. Hydrogels, known for their mechanical properties and similarity to biological tissues,…
A facile route for the fabrication of surface-attached hydrogel thin films with well-controlled chemistry and tailored architecture on wide range of thickness from nanometers to micrometers is reported. The synthesis, which consists in…
Hydrogels provide a solution-mimicking environment for the interaction with living systems that make them desirable for various biomedical and technological applications. Because relevant biological processes in living tissues occur at the…
Large bottlebrush complexes formed from the polysaccharide hyaluronan (HA) and the proteoglycan aggrecan contribute to cartilage compression resistance and are necessary for healthy joint function. A variety of mechanical forces act on…
Incorporating nanomaterials into hydrogels allows for the creation of versatile materials with properties that can be precisely tailored by manipulating their nanoscale structures, leading to a wide range of bulk properties. Investigating…
Advanced bioactive systems with defined macroscopic properties and spatio-temporal sequestration of extracellular biomacromolecules are highly desirable for next generation therapeutics. Here, chitosan hydrogels were prepared with neutral…
DNA nanostar (DNAns) hydrogels are promising materials for in vivo applications, including tissue regeneration and drug and antibody delivery. However, a systematic and quantitative understanding of the design principles controlling their…