Student creates material with multi-patterned surface to study tissue growth

Modern medicine has the desire to replace damaged tissue with newly grown tissue, such as to repair skin, bone, cartilage, or arteries. But what kinds of surfaces could be used to grow suitable tissues?

Suolong Ni, a graduate student in chemistry at Virginia Tech, has fabricated a biopolymer onto solid surfaces with a range of properties to enable the study of the effects of different surfaces on cell adhesion and tissue growth. He will present his research in the Excellence in Graduate Polymer Science Research Symposium at the 231st American Chemical Society National Meeting in Atlanta on March 26-30.

Ni has fabricated a thin film that has both smooth areas and areas where the molecules have formed a geometric or crystal-like relationship, making the surface patterned. So far he has prepared a series of surface patterns with controlled surface morphology. These surfaces may be suitable for cell adhesion studies.