Biomedical Hydrogels

Hydrogels are a promising soft material platform which can be engineered to show similar properties to native tissue, and utilised in a variety of biomedical applications, such as to deliver drugs, culture cells or even replace native tissue.  In our group, we aim to build upon existing thermoresponsive hydrogels at IMRE to make advances in ocular devices and therapeutics, and to develop novel hydrogel materials inspired by unmet biomedical needs.

Our research is in three main areas:

1. Therapeutic thermogels: Designing next generation thermogelling systems for a variety of therapeutic applications
2. Data-driven biomaterials: Harnessing big data tools to drive hydrogel-based biomaterial discovery and optimisation
   
3. Multifunctional hybrid hydrogels: Developing hydrogels with the latest functionalities for improved responsive properties

1) THERAPEUTIC THERMOGELS

Thermogels are amongst the most effective and useful in situ formed hydrogels due to the universality of tapping on physiological temperatures for biomedical applications.  However, typical thermogels such as Pluronics are not biocompatible and show toxicity in the body. We engineer biodegradable polyurethane thermogels with tunable mechanical properties, which can be used for broad therapeutic applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Representative Publications

• Antiangiogenic Nanomicelles for the Topical Delivery of Aflibercept to Treat Retinal Neovascular Disease. Advanced Materials. 2021, 2108360
  
  
• Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels: From Recent Progress to Biomedical Applications." Gels 2021, 7(3): 77.
  
  
• Thermogelling chitosan-based polymers for the treatment of oral mucosa ulcers." Biomaterials Science 2020, 8(5): 1364-1379.
  
  
• A new highly transparent injectable PHA-based thermogelling vitreous substitute." Biomaterials Science 2020 8(3): 926-936.
  
  Patents: Ocular drug delivery by topical and intravitreal delivery (SG 10201907554S, SG 10202108149Q)
  
  
  

2) DATA-DRIVEN BIOMATERIALS

Biomaterials has made big advances so far to human health and wellness.  Due to the innate complexity, it is a formidable challenge to get a clear understanding of the relationships between the observed performance and the underlying chemistry and structures.  With high throughput experimentation and multi-dimensional data generation and utilization, we aim to transform the paradigm in advancing hydrogel biomaterials, from conventional empirical methods to data-driven approaches assisted by machine learning.  

Representative Publications

• Machine Learning-Driven Biomaterials Evolution. Advanced Materials 2022, 34, 2102703
  
• Biomaterials by design: Harnessing data for future development." Materials Today Bio 2021 12: 100165.