Fine-Tuning Cell Behavior with Chemical Tools: Towards New Cell Instructive Biomaterials for Tissue Regeneration
Recreating the healing microenvironment is essential to regulate cell-material interactions and ensure tissue regeneration on biomaterials. In the particular case of bone tissue, this can be achieved by mimicking its extracellular matrix through integrin and growth factor signaling. However, the majority of approaches in this field have classically focus on the use of native proteins and synthetic peptides with relatively low activity, selectivity and stability, generally resulting in modest outcomes in vivo. Moreover, bacterial infections and biofilm formation seriously compromise the long-term survival of medical implants, posing an increasingly complex challenge in clinical settings.
To overcome these limitations, our research group has focused on developing innovative coatings and materials with enhanced integrin-specificity and/or multiple biological potential, to design advanced cell-instructive biomaterials for tissue regeneration. In this talk I will focus on three representative approaches to achieve this: (1) RGD-based peptidomimetics with specificity for integrins αvβ3 or α5β1; (2) multifunctional peptidic platforms exhibiting synergistic integrin-growth factor signaling; and (3) multifunctional materials with cell adhesive and antibacterial properties. The capacity of these systems to fine tune and control cell behavior in vitro, and potential to regenerate bone in animal models will be discussed.
Speaker
-
Carles Mas MorunoDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering , UPCDr. Carles Mas Moruno is Associate Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Associate Academic Director of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (IRIS).
He did his PhD in Chemistry at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Barcelona – Universitat de Barcelona (2009) and was visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA). After graduating, he joined as postdoctoral researcher the Technical University of Munich (Germany, 2009-2011), where he was also appointed as Project Team Leader at the International Graduate School of Science and Engineering. Afterwards, he joined the group of Biomaterials, Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering (BBT-UPC), first with a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (2012-2015) and then with a Ramón y Cajal Grant (2016-2022). He earned a permanent position as Associate Professor at the UPC in 2022.
His research focuses on the development of multifunctional biomaterials for regenerative medicine. To this end, he explores the design of innovative peptide-based molecules with integrin-binding affinity and their combination with osteogenic and/or antibacterial features to simultaneously address tissue regeneration and reduce bacterial infections.
His scientific career has been recognized by several distinctions, including the “XV Premi Claustre de Doctors de la Universitat de Barcelona” (2011) and more recently the “Marcial Moreno Lectureship Award 2020” (awarded by the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry). He is currently Board Member of the Spanish Society of Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering (SEMIT) and Scientific Collaborator and Manager for the Spanish Research State Agency (AEI).