SPEAKER:
Associate Professor t Xinqiao Jia, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Program, University of Delaware
ABSTRACT:
Rapid and bioorthogonal reactions, when combined with modular building blocks of molecular and microscopic dimensions, enable the construction of synthetic matrices with complex structures, controlled heterogeneity and defined biological functions. Using chemically modified hyaluronic acid (HA) carrying complementary functional groups, we have created various HA-based bulk gels, hydrogel particles (HGPs) and HGP-integrated hydrogel networks with tunable mechanical properties and spatio-temporal presentation of biological cues.
When self-assembled block copolymer micelles were employed as the microscopic crosslinkers and drug depots, the resultant hydrogels exhibit force-modulated drug release kinetics. HA hydrogels with spatial gradients of stiffness and ligand density have been successfully synthesized via a diffusion-controlled interfacial crosslinking process without using any templates or external triggers. The enabling chemistry is the cycloaddition of s-tetrazine (TET) with trans-cyclooctene (TCO) derivatives, a biocompatible and bioorthogonal reaction that proceeds with exceptional rates. Separately, protein-mimetic multiblock hybrid polymers have been synthesized by copper (I) catalyzed alyne-azide cycloaddition reaction.
These hybrid copolymers exhibit unique assembly characteristics and elastomeric properties. Finally, high molecular weight multiblock copolymers are produced as robust polymer microfibers via interfacial bioorthogonal polymerization employing TET and TCO-functionalized precursors at the oil/water interface. When cell-adhesive peptide is incorporated in the TET monomer, the resulting protein-mimetic polymer fibers provide guidance cues for cell attachment and elongation. The modular approaches allow facile substitution of the constituent building blocks to fine-tune the materials properties for applications in tissue engineering.
BIO:
Xinqiao Jia is an Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware. Dr. Jia received her B.S. in Applied Chemistry from Fudan University in China in 1995 and her Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2002 in the laboratory of Professor Thomas McCarthy.
She conducted her postdoctoral training with Professor Robert Langer at MIT prior to joining the University of Delaware in 2005. Dr. Jia serves as the Graduate Program Chair for Materials Science and Engineering and is affiliated with several centers and institutes at the University of Delaware, including the COBRE center on Advanced Biomaterials and Delaware Biotechnology Institute. Dr. Jia’s research lies at the interface of materials and biology. Her group is developing intelligent biomaterials that closely mimic the molecular composition, biological functions, mechanical responsiveness and multiscale organizations of the natural extracellular matrices. Using biologically inspired paradigms, the Jia Group is developing methodologies for the engineering of healthy, replacement tissues such as cartilage, vocal folds and salivary glands, as well as disease models, such as prostate cancer tumor spheroids.
Dr. Jia’s research activities are currently supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and the DuPont Company. She received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2006 to develop mechano-responsive biomaterials. She has been recognized as an Outstanding Junior Faculty of Engineering and DuPont Young Professor in 2010.
She received the Delaware BioScience Association’s Academic Award in 2011. She was the Thematic Program Chair of the 244th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting & Exposition. Work from the Jia group has been featured by CNN, ACS and C&E News.