A biomimetic multilayered polymeric material designed for heart valve repair and replacement.

Materials currently used to repair or replace a heart valve are not durable. Their limited durability related to structural degeneration or thrombus formation is attributed to their inadequate mechanical properties and biocompatibility profiles. Our hypothesis is that a biostable material that mimics the structure, mechanical and biological properties of native tissue will improve the durability of these leaflets substitutes and in fine improve the patient outcome.

Bioaffinity-based surface immobilization of antibodies to capture endothelial colony-forming cells.

Maximizing the re-endothelialization of vascular implants such as prostheses or stents has the potential to significantly improve their long-term performance. Endothelial progenitor cell capture stents with surface-immobilized antibodies show significantly improved endothelialization in the clinic. However, most current antibody-based stent surface modification strategies rely on antibody adsorption or direct conjugation via amino or carboxyl groups which leads to poor control over antibody surface concentration and/or molecular orientation, and ultimately bioavailability for cell capture.

Surface grafting of Fc-binding peptides as a simple platform to immobilize and identify antibodies that selectively capture circulating endothelial progenitor cells.

Antibody surface immobilization is a promising strategy to capture cells of interest from circulating fluids in vitro and in vivo. An application of particular interest in vascular interventions is to capture endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) on the surface of stents to accelerate endothelialization. The clinical impact of EPC capture stents has been limited by the lack of efficient selective cell capture.

Isolating and expanding endothelial progenitor cells from peripheral blood on peptide-functionalized polystyrene surfaces.

The expansion of human peripheral blood endothelial progenitor cells to obtain therapeutically relevant endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) has been commonly performed on xeno-derived extracellular matrix proteins. For cellular therapy applications, xeno-free culture conditions are desirable to improve product safety and reduce process variability. We have previously described a novel fluorophore-tagged RGD peptide (RGD-TAMRA) that enhanced the adhesion of mature endothelial cells in vitro.

Synergistic Nanomedicine: Passive, Active, and Ultrasound-Triggered Drug Delivery in Cancer Treatment.

Nanocarriers are heavily researched as drug delivery vehicles capable of sequestering antineoplastic agents and then releasing their contents at the desired location. The feasibility of using such carriers stems from their ability to produce a multimodel delivery system whereby passive, ligand and triggered targeting can be applied in the fight against cancer. Passive targeting capitalizes on the leaky nature of tumor tissue which allows for the extravasation of particles with a size smaller than 0.

Targeting the Folate Receptor: Effects of Conjugating Folic Acid to DOX Loaded Polymeric Micelles.

In this paper, we report on a potential cancer drug delivery system that utilizes the ligand targeting of the folate receptor. Our drug delivery system consists of Pluronic-P105 micelles, targeted with folic acid moieties. A melanoma folate positive (FR+) (B16-F10), and a fibroblast folate negative (FR-) (NIH-3T3) cell lines are used to compare the cellular accumulation of a chemotherapeutic drug (Doxorubicin) when the delivery is mediated by folated Pluronic P105 micelles.