Abstract

This talk will provide an overview of our recent developments in bio-instructive, self-assembling and gradient materials for applications in regenerative medicine with focus on establishing translational pipelines to bring our innovations to the clinic [1]. Our group has developed remote fields to engineer complex 3D architectures that mimic anisotropic and multiscale tissue structures and generate spatially arranged bioinstructive biochemical cues, such as acoustic stimulation to produce engineered muscle with bundles of aligned fibres [2]. I will discuss recent advances in our tunable nanoneedle arrays for multiplexed intracellular biosensing at sub-cellular resolution and modulation of biological processes [3], and will talk about our portfolio of nanoparticle-based sensing probes for diagnosing and monitoring infectious and non-communicable diseases with integration to smartphone technology for mHealth approaches [4, 5]. We are also advancing Raman spectroscopy characterisation techniques for high-throughput label-free characterization of single nanoparticles -SPARTA which is becoming an integral tool for the design of advanced nanotherapeutics [6]. I will explore how these versatile technologies can be applied to transformative biomedical innovations. [1] J. P. K. Armstrong… M. M. Stevens. “A blueprint for translational regenerative medicine.” Science Translational Medicine. 2020. 12(572): eaaz2253. [2] J. P. K. Armstrong,… M. M. Stevens. “Engineering anisotropic muscle tissue using acoustic cell patterning.” Advanced Materials. 30(43): 1802649. [3] C. Chiappini… M. M. Stevens, E. Tasciotti. “Biodegradable silicon nanoneedles delivering nucleic acids intracellularly induce localized in vivo neovascularization.” Nature Materials. 2015. 14: 532 [4] C. N. Loynachan… M. M. Stevens. “Renal clearable catalytic gold nanoclusters for in vivo disease monitoring.” Nature Nanotechnology. 2019. 14: 883–890. [5] C. S. Wood, … M. M. Stevens. “Taking connected mobile-health diagnostics of infectious diseases to the field.” Nature. 2019. 566: 467-474. [6] J. Penders… M. Stevens. “Single particle automated Raman trapping analysis.” Nature Communications. 2018, 9: 4256.