Self-assembly peptide-amphiphile biomimetic materials for biomedical applications

Abstract

Biomaterial science has significantly evolved in the past half century and is one of the major engines to boost the development of regenerative medicine. Both increasing requirement for biomaterials and increasing appreciation of the functionality of biological matrix caused scientists to consider nature for design and fabrication inspiration for new generation of biomimetic materials. This thesis was designed to develop new class of biomimetic materials that closely resembled the roles of natural materials and held great potential for a number of biomedical applications, through using peptides as the building blocks, the extracellular matrix (ECM) as the mimicking template, and peptide-amphiphile self-assembly as the mimicking means.