SPEAKER:	Dr. Elizabeth Gillies Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering University of Western Ontario                                                                                London Ontario
TITLE:	Functional Biomaterials: From Self-Assembly to Surface Functionalization
DATE:	November 4 2010
TIME:	10:30 am
PLACE:	JHE 326H

ABSTRACT

Biomaterials are increasingly important in the development of new strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. In particular, many drugs and drug candidates exhibit undesirable properties such as low solubility, rapid excretion, or an inability to cross cell membranes. Their incorporation into nanosized biomaterials such as micelles, nanoparticles or vesicles can address these issues. With the goal of obtaining optimal performance, increasing demands are placed on the materials to perform multiple functions such as tissue targeting and “smart” release, while at the same time maintaining biocompatibility and degradability. This talk will describe the Gillies group’s research on new functional biodegradable polymers, their assembly into nanoscale structures such as micelles, nanoparticles and vesicles, and studies of their biological properties. It will also present our work on a new and versatile approach for covalently immobilizing functional polymers on unreactive surfaces in order to achieve protein resistance and antimicrobial properties.