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Theme 2.2: Functional and Responsive Nanostructured Surfaces
The objective of Theme 2.2 is to design a new generation of responsive surfaces that are able to deliver a range of therapeutic drugs, vaccines, or remediatory elements to the Soldier to alleviate or prevent disease and promote healing of injuries and wounds and to provide medical care to the Soldier on the battlefield rapidly and conveniently. The needs that will be addressed include: the development of wound dressings, fabrics and surfaces that contain highly potent antibacterial agents which are not susceptible to the development of resistant bacterial strains and can be released over highly sustained and controlled periods of time; the incorporation of specific and timed sequences of multiple therapeutics such as antibacterials, anti-inflammatories, and tissue healing growth proteins in unique thin film wound healing scaffolds and dressings; and the ability to generate and store large quantities of vaccines for long time durations in lightweight flexible thin films that could be administered orally, transdermally, or subdermally. The methods used to generate these surfaces are a particularly synergistic combination of bio-informatics, genetic engineering, nanostructured materials design and synthesis, and polyelectrolyte multilayer thin film nanoscale-assembly techniques developed at MIT. Both of these projects described below are new to the ISN, and introduce entirely new methods and approaches to the important area of battlefield medicine.
Project 2.2.1: New Controlled Release Films and Functional Surfaces
for Battlefield Medicine
Project 2.2.2: Environment-Sensitive Micellar Nanocapsules
for Non-Invasive Drug Delivery
Theme 2.2 Researchers
Prof.
Angela Belcher, Department
of Materials Science and Engineering
Prof. Robert E. Cohen, Department of Chemical Engineering
Prof. Paula T. Hammond, Department
of Chemical Engineering
Prof. Darrell J. Irvine, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Prof. Gregory Stephanopoulos, Department of Chemical Engineering
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