ICN2 - INPhINIT: Mussel-inspired thin-films for tissue regeneration

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In recent years, tissue regeneration has become one of the main branches of medicine aiming to solve a multitude of pathologies caused by irreversible tissue degeneration (necrosis due to heart attacks, damage of tissue due to osteoarthritis or osteoporosis, wounds or burns, and loss of activity of the nervous system, among others). In the literature, there are several examples of biomaterials intended for tissue regeneration. However, their transfer to the clinic has not been reported due to limiting problems (high cost of production, toxicity, multistage processes and low regenerative activity). For this reason, a more significant effort is necessary for the development of new materials with outstanding characteristics. It is in this scenario where bioinspired materials can demonstrate their great potential. Specifically, materials based on catechol molecules, which are found in various living organisms (e.g. mussels), have unprecedented properties such as adhesion in wet conditions, biocompatibility, available chemical anchor points for (bio)molecules of interest and low production cost, among others. These excellent features make bioinspired catechol-based materials unique for its potential use in tissue regeneration.

The multidisciplinary Nanostructured Functional Materials (Nanosfun) group has a long history of developing catechol-based bioinspired polymers with a wide range of applications. Recently, Nanosfun has developed a straightforward strategy for the fabrication of functional platforms showing promising capabilities. The systems are obtained from the one-pot reaction of catechol derivatives that allows producing a family of membranes of relevance in medicine. These membranes can be easily manipulated and have been shown to be biocompatible as well as allowing cell proliferation and adhesion in biological tissue.

INPhINIT is a doctoral fellowship programme devoted to attracting international Early-Stage Researchers to the top Spanish research centres. This frame is addressed exclusively to STEM disciplines: life sciences and health, experimental sciences, physics, chemistry and mathematics. INPhINIT is promoted by the "la Caixa" Foundation with the aim of supporting the best scientific talent and fostering innovative and high-quality research in Spain by recruiting outstanding international students and offering them an attractive and competitive environment for conducting research of excellence.