Super-resolution microscopy reveals that biomaterials can be designed to interact dynamically with human tissues
Regrowing new tissues in the laboratory such as bone, liver or heart is challenging because different tissues not only contain different cells, but must have different structures, which have to be made in the laboratory.
Researchers at King’s College London have been working in collaboration with Northwestern University (Chicago) and Eindhoven University of Technology on a new promising type of biomaterial that forms automatically, or ‘self-assembles’. The teams have been learning how to tweak it to form new tissue-like structures. They report today in Nature Communications that unlike most conventional materials that once formed are static, materials made by ‘self-assembly’ are dynamic and constantly disassemble and re-assemble. This is important because dynamic self-assembled materials will be able to communicate with cells, just like normal tissues do in the body. This information can be used to generate useful aggregate morphologies for improved biomedical function.
The researchers made this discovery using ‘Super-Resolution Microscopy’, which allowed them to watch tiny individual molecules as they assembled and disassembled. The inventors of ‘Super Resolution Microscopy’ were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 and the technique has since revolutionised the study of biological molecules.
Lead researcher on the project Dr Ricardo MP da Silva of King’s College London’s Dental Institute said: "With these materials, we are a step closer to being able to steer stem cells to form human tissues."
Notes to editors
“Super‐Resolution Microscopy Reveals Structural Diversity in Molecular Exchange among Peptide Amphiphile Nanofibres” was published in Nature Communications on 19 May 2016. It can be accessed here.
For more information on the Dental Institute at King’s College London please contact Laura Shepherd, Senior Communications Officer on +44 (0) 207 118 1163 or laura.2.shepherd@kcl.ac.uk