UCLA researchers led by Professor Heather Maynard in the Department of Chemistry have developed a method for creating hydrogels using a patented and specific type of chemical reaction called oxime bond formation (or oxime ligation).
BACKGROUND: While many methods exist to create hydrogels (cross-linked materials used in biomedicine), most suffer from significant drawbacks, including toxicity to payloads and stability issues. Existing methods for chemically crosslinking hydrogels include: Michael Addition, Radical Crosslinking, Self-Assembly, as well as other specific chemistries like thiol-ene, Huisgens cycloaddition, and Diels-Alder reaction. The primary limitation of these methods is that the chemical reactions used to form the gel often compromise the therapeutic agents (payloads) or cells being loaded into them. There is a clear need for a new hydrogel technology with improved stability and therapeutic properties.
ADVANTAGES OF THE TECHNOLOGY:
- Tunable Properties: The Maynard Lab's technique is advantageous because the resulting hydrogels can have tunable mechanical and gelation properties, meaning the stiffness and the time it takes for the gel to form can be controlled, often by adjusting the pH and using an aniline catalyst.
- Chemical Functionality: The method can be designed to incorporate chemical functionalities (like azide or alkene groups) into the hydrogel network for post-gelation modification, allowing researchers to add biological cues (such as peptides) after the gel has formed.
APPLICATIONS: These chemically cross-linked polymers (hydrogels) are intended for various biomedical applications, including:
- Treating disorders (e.g., retinal detachment or osteoarthritis).
- Use in screening models (e.g., in vitro cell culture systems).
- Cell transplantation (in vivo applications).
About the inventor: Dr. Heather Maynard's laboratory integrates synthetic polymers with naturally-derived biomolecules to treat and detect cancer. The group develops novel synthetic methods to make important classes of cancer therapeutics including protein- or siRNA-polymer conjugates. They also focus on delivery of small molecule cancer drugs from nanocapsules. In addition, they develop diagnostics for the early detection of cancer. Maynard's approach involves many disciplines including polymer chemistry, biochemistry, and nanofabrication.