Title : Presentation Title Guided Microbial Enzymatic Catalysis for Developing Biocompatible, Eco-Friendly Nanostructured Smart Materials
Abstract:
In modern day industry, building biocompatible, ecological friendly materials is one of the most wanted goals. These materials can be used as drug delivery devices, tissue injury replacements, or dietary replacements. However, these kind of materials, often derived from animal or plant extractions, show a complex composition and nano-structure, which leads to unwanted behaviors in different environments (low stability, low rheology, aggregation…).
A very promising strategy is the use of natural, microbial, authorized enzymes, like transglutaminase (Tgase). The cross-linking created by such enzymes can potentially increase durability, stiffness, and reduce non-desired aggregation of the material. However, this strategy needs material-dependent, very fine-tuned physico-chemical conditions to avoid undesirable cross-links or an unnecessary use of enzymes (which increases the cost of the treatment). This is even more challenging since it is hard to predict the catalysis activity in more complex, often denser, materials. To avoid a time-costly and unnecessary empirical strategy of changing all physico-chemical parameters of Tgase for each material, our group has combined advanced analysis, like high magnetic field solid-state NMR, small angle scattering, or asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (A4F), to understand the more general and universal underlying mechanisms of Tgase stabilization in very different environments. The rate of cross-link has been correlated to enzyme concentration, time of treatment, and with the material structural characteristics in terms of density, porosity, and with rheology data. These data show some surprising, repeatable, often non-linear dependencies that could be used as a guide to fast reach the optimal conditions.
