Enzyme Responsive Materials for Biology and Medicine

This proposal is to develop new routes to rationally designed Enzyme Responsive Materials (ERMs) for biomedical applications. These materials can change properties, for example they can swell/collapse or change from a solution to a gel in response to biochemical reactions. These materials may have applications in the controlled release of drugs in response to disease specific enzymes. They may also be used in triggered assembly of matrixes for cell growth, with applications in tissue engineering. The outcomes of this project will be (i) the development and full characterisation of new interactive biomaterials, (ii) increased fundamental understanding of structure/function relationships in molecular hydrogels, (iii) proof of concept applications in enzyme triggered assembly of scaffolds for 3D cell culture and (iv) enzyme triggered drug delivery.