Project Info

Oxidatively Remodeled Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

Dylan Domaille | ddomaille@mines.edu

One especially powerful way to improve the efficacy of treatment while minimizing costs and side effects associated with systemic drug application is to endow a material with stimuli-responsive or ‘smart’ behavior. Stimuli-responsive materials respond to the unique chemical or physical microenvironment of a disease state. A rigorously designed stimuli-responsive material will act as a molecular logic gate and produce an output (e.g., drug release) if and only if a unique chemical profile exists (e.g., [H2O2] > 50 μM but not [-OCl] > 100 μM). This strategy holds exceptional promise for delivering therapeutics only to areas that are diseased, avoiding complications arising from systemic drug application.

We are currently developing hydrogels that respond to oxidative stress to deliver therapeutics only at sites of inflammation. As chemists, we employ a ‘bottom-up’ design approach that begins with identifying chemical linkages that respond to oxidative stress. Our preliminary data, collected by a previous awardee of a Mines Undergraduate Fellowship, has revealed a remarkably powerful chemical motif that breaks down only after ‘pre-activation’ with physiologically relevant ROS.

The goals of the project include identifying structure/activity relationships between ROS selectivity/reactivity and chemical structure, as well as merging these motifs into polymeric networks for applications in oxidatively-released drug delivery formulations.

More Information

http://www.domaillelab.com/project2.html

Grand Engineering Challenge: Engineer better medicines