Biomaterials and devices for disease diagnosis and therapy

Lectures: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session

There are no specific prerequisites for this course. However, material will be much easier to understand if the student has a general knowledge of biology, chemistry and material science. Students from the Biology, Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering Departments are all encouraged to attend. Students from other background areas also encouraged to attend as the instructors will tailor the course according to enrollment. Students should contact the instructors ahead of the first session if they have concerns about their backgrounds.

The use of materials to solve healthcare challenges dates back to ancient times when simple prosthetics made of wood were used to augment the function of lost limbs. Over the past millennia our technological capabilities have advanced dramatically to the point at which we can now engineer complex biomaterial devices that integrate with cells, proteins, and other biological molecules to assess disease or elicit a desired therapeutic effect. This course will focus on biomaterials principles, such as biocompatibility, cell-protein interactions, controlled release, polymer modification, and self-assembly, with a particular emphasis on technologies that manipulate biologics at the micro- and nanoscale.

Students will learn about the use of biomaterials to create advanced diagnostic tools to detect infectious and chronic diseases, restore insulin production to supplement lost pancreatic function in diabetes, provide cells with appropriate physical, mechanical, and biochemical cues to direct tissue regeneration, and enhance the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. By examining the primary literature, we will seek answers to key questions currently facing the field of biomedicine, including: What strategies can we use to make vaccines more potent? How can we use the immune system to specifically target cancer cells? How can we quickly (and inexpensively) diagnose disease? Is it possible to make a truly bioinert device? What tools are available to direct tissue regrowth and repair? Can we make nucleic acid delivery sufficiently to silence or correct genetic mutations? Through reading and in-class group discussion, students will develop the skills necessary to critically analyze papers.

Students will also be tasked with using their creativity to ask new questions that build upon the concepts presented in the literature. By the end of the course, students should be able to evaluate the validity of methods used, identify key experimental controls, interpret figures, and draw their own conclusions about the importance of a manuscript. This course will also include a field trip to a local biotechnology company to expose students to state-of-the-art biomaterial strategies being employed in cell-based therapy. The goals of this course are for students to get a broad understanding of the field of biomaterials, develop the ability to independently evaluate scholarly manuscripts, and understand how to rationally design experiments of their own.

This course will meet once per week for two hours. The day and time of the course is flexible pending the mutual availability of the instructors and students. If you would like to take the course but cannot meet at the listed time, please contact the instructors in advance with your availability. This course will not be in lecture format, but instead consist of instructor-guided but student-led in-class discussions. A typical week will consist of reading two manuscripts selected from the primary literature in advance, in-depth discussion of the methods, figures, key results, and conclusions provided in the paper, and a brief introduction to the following week’s topics.

The course will be graded as "pass" or "fail." A passing grade will be given to students who attend the class, participate appropriately in discussions, and complete both written and oral assignments in a satisfactory manner.

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