UChicago researchers have been hard at work making bio interfaces more dynamic.
As their recent research in Nature Chemical Engineering demonstrates, the Bozhi Tian lab, led by graduate student Jiuyun Shi, has developed new interfaces that offer adaptability, precision, and targeted interactions with biological components, a discovery that could have significant implications for the future of healthcare.
Understanding Interfaces
In the field of biomedical research, a biological interface is a junction thatestablishes a connection between a material or device, and a biological component.This biological component can vary from a single cell to the surface of an entire organ. Current research has focused on finding applications for woundtreatment, colitis treatment, and bioelectronics.
“Traditional biointerfaces, they're not dynamic,” said Tian. “Meaning that material or the device themselves, they cannot change over time in terms of their form or their function. They're just static. And that's for majority - I would say more than 99% - of biointerfaces.”
While traditional biointerfaces do not change form or function over time, Shi and the Tian Lab wanted to create a more dynamic biointerface that can transform and adapt to better aid disease diagnosis and treatment.
Dynamic biointerfaces fall into two main categories: monolithic biointerfaces and focal biointerfaces.
Monolithic biointerfaces initially take the form of a whole piece of material or device, but over time, certain components within the material - such as pH or heat sensitivity – are triggered to change the material’s form, evolving a monolithic into a focal biointerface where more precise and targeted interactions can occur.
“Focal biointerface means that you have point-like distributed biointerface, not like everything is covered. It only forms connections at certain points of the biological surface, so that cells, molecules, other things they can easily diffuse into the target biology site,” said Tian.
The Challenge of Transformation
While monolithic biointerfaces have their advantages, there have been several challenges associated with their use, like size and coverage.
Monolithic biointerfaces often occupy a large area, which can lead to diffusion limitations. Additionally, the fixed size of an interface can cause inflammation and biocompatibility issues. Furthermore, the need for device removal after spending the use of initial application has proven to be problematic for researchers.
For the Tian Lab, these challenges emphasized a need for researchers to seek more adaptable and focalbiointerfaces that can avoid post-surgery device removal by utilizing a natural degradation of the material.
The Innovation
To address the limitations of current interfaces, Tian and the team developed an innovative solution using granular hydrogels. These hydrogels consist of starch particles and gelatin, a temperature and pH-sensitive biopolymer. The starch particles function as focal points, establishing focal biointerfaces when they land on the biological tissue surface. The gelatin component provides the necessary sensitivity to temperature and pH, enabling the transformation of the monolithic interface into a focal one. The Lab found that surface modification enhanced the adhesion of the granules to the tissue surface, allowing for stronger and more stable connections.
Throughout their journey, sustainability remained at the forefront of their research. As most research up to this point has been developed using synthetic materials, Shi, who worked on the project for three years, sought a polymer from naturally occurring biological resources to establish a natural reaction to aid a material’s degradation.
“We are trying to find out some new methods which are less invasive and less toxic,” - Jiuyun Shi
The lab found their answer in the use of naturally occurring biopolymers like gelatin and starch. These naturally derived make granular hydrogels less invasive and more compatible with biological systems, offering the sustainable solution they were looking for.Additionally, the use of nature-derived polymers provides manufacturing advantages and reduces toxicity, making them more suitable for the future of biomedical applications.
Conclusion
The development of dynamic biointerfaces opens a world of possibilities in the field of biosensing and regenerative medicine. While the current research has focused on applications such as wound healing, colitis treatment, and bioelectronics, there are numerous other diseases and conditions that could benefit from this technology.
As their research is being assessed, Shi and the Tian lab plan to continue the work with evolving biointerfaces, actively investigating biopolymers such as collagen to further develop novel and sustainable solutions.
Citation - Shi, J., Lin, Y., Li, P. et al. Monolithic-to-focal evolving biointerfaces in tissue regeneration and bioelectronics. Nat Chem Eng 1, 73–86 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44286-023-00008-y
To see investigator Jiuyun Shi explain their research and methods, click the video below: