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NOVIDADES
An interdisciplinary research team at Lehigh University has unraveled how functional biomaterials rely upon an interfacial protein layer to transmit signals to living cells concerning their adhesion, proliferation and overall development. According to an article published in Scientific Reports ("Nanostructure of bioactive glass affects bone cell attachment via protein restructuring upon adsorption"), the nanoscale features and properties of an underlying substrate do not impact the biological response of cells directly. However, these properties indirectly influence cell behavior through their control over adsorbed proteins. In the article, the Lehigh team demonstrates that living cells respond to interfacial layer characteristics that arise as a consequence of micro- and nano-scale structures engineered into a substrate material. These infinitesimally-tiny structures have an enormous impact upon the nature of the proteins and how they restructure themselves and electrostatically interact with the material, which in turn influences the manner in which cells attach to the substrate and develop over time.
 'Flower-like' microstructures forming upon a nanoporous glass monolith featuring 31nm-diameter pores. Image: Thamma, Kowal, Falk, Jain - Lehigh University
Joining Professor Jain in guiding this research is Matthias Falk, a Professor of Cell Biology with Lehigh's College of Arts and Sciences. The team is rounded out by two doctoral students jointly supervised by Falk and Jain Dr. Tia Kowal, who received PhD in Biological Sciences and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford Medicine, and lead author Dr. Ukrit Thamma, who completed his doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering and is now a lecturer at King Mongkut's University of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand.
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