BIOSENSING
Biosensing devises are used to detect and determine biological analytes in different areas e.g. healthcare, agri-food, environment and in the security sector. Such a devise consists of three major parts, a sensitive biological element (tissue, cell receptor, enzyme etc), a transducer or detector element that has the ability of transforming signals from interacting analytes with biological elements and an associated electronic or signal processor that can display the result. The principle of the detection varies among biosensing devises from optical, electrochemical or by using an ion channel switch. In present research biosensing devises having ion channels embedded in tethered lipid bilayers (TLBs) are investigated, as is illustrated at the right.
(Maria Claesson and Akbar Ahmadi)
IMPLANTS – DRUG-DELIVERY
There is an ongoing development for dental implants in order to reveal an enhanced osseointegration. An improved healing around the implant is needed to be able to treat patients suffering from osteoporosis. Our concept to obtain an improved osseointegration is to coat implants with a mesoporous TiO2 thin film, this matrix has the purpose to serve for a local and controlled drug-delivery. The drug candidates that will be evaluated have the property to stimulate bone growth. Mesoporous materials are of interest since they possess many features that can be tuned to achieve a tailor-made controlled release. The release rate can be tuned by changing pore size, pore volume and surface chemistry of the pore walls. Furthermore, a local administration from a dental implant has many advantages compared to a systemic drug-delivery, such as lower drug dose would be needed and a more efficient treatment.
(Johan Karlsson and Karin Breding)
BIOMIMICRY
Molecular self-assembly in nature is a key process for constructing a variety of hierarchical biological structures and materials, for instance cells, viruses and bone. In order to form inorganic materials with delicate architectures that mimic nature, numerous efforts have been made to fabricate materials by using mesostructured biological or organic templates. Although techniques for synthesizing mesostructured silica-based material have been well developed, the templating routes of calcium phosphates (CaPs, the mineral phase in bone and teeth) with well-defined mesostructures have seldom been reported. By using self-assembled liquid crystalline phases to mimic the collagen matrix in bone, we are working on the formation of CaP materials with different morphologies for biomedical applications.
(Wenxiao He and Yu Fu)
NANOTOXICOLOGY
The skin is our largest organ. It is a very important defense against dehydration and external threats such as radiation, chemicals and microorganisms. Many factors determine the degree of penetration of chemical substances and particles through the skin, such as size, reactivity and surface properties. The question regarding nanoparticles ability to penetrate into or through the skin has been debated. This debate is driven by the fact that several everyday products, such as sunscreens and cosmetics, contain large quantities of nanoparticles. Many of these particles, e.g., TiO2 are non-bioresorbable and might cause undesired toxicological effects if penetrating into the skin. A few studies exist where nanoparticle skin penetration has been observed. Current projects include studies of linking specific properties of nanoparticles, such as size and hydrophobicity to their skin penetration abilities.
(Emma Westas and Wenxiao He)
