Abstract

A disagreeable side effect of longer life-spans is the failure of one part of the body – the knees, for example – before the body as a whole is ready to surrender. The search for replacement body parts has fuelled the highly interdisciplinary field of Tissue Engineering (TE). This talk will describe new approaches in tissue regeneration including modulation of cell behaviour through nanoscale architecture. Another example of bio-inspired engineering of nanostructured materials is the use of biomolecular assembly processes to create higher order architectures. This talk will discuss how peptide-peptide recognition can be exploited to create new dynamic nano-materials that can assemble and disassemble under physiologically accessible environmental conditions in response to stimuli such as pH and enzymes. Potential applications in medical science include the generation of novel tunable and/or switchable materials for use in sensing and devices.