Research Project
2715297
This project is designed to develop and demonstrate a facile, cost- effective, and broadly applicable thin-film costing technology for the passivation of biosensor and medical device surfaces. Prevention of non- specific binding of proteins and other biomolecules is a major unmet need for a large variety of biomaterial, optical, electrical and structural surfaces which suffer fouling (protein and cellular adhesion, microbial proliferation, friction/drag, and corrosion) from functioning in chronic contact with physiological fluids, pharmaceuticals, foods, and marine waters. A new class of reagents is proposed, for providing self-assembled monolayers which can be fixed on the surface. After spontaneous formation from aqueous coating fluid, the monolayer film on the hydrophobic surface will be stabilized through attachment to the surface and polymerization, resulting in the hydrophilic moieties providing a "field of grass" to prevent biomolecule adsorption. This ultrathin passivating film will be toughened and held firmly to the surface through crosslinking between the molecules and their coupling to the surface. This Phase I effort will synthesize test models of two sub-types of this new class of multi-functional self-assembling monolayer molecule and use-test them on three or more biosensor and medical device materials. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: This Phase I effort is expected to generate research-scale quantities of eight new reagents in two sub-types of a new, superior class of coating reagents for the stable passivation of hydrophobic surface materials. Numerous new biosensor and implantable medical device applications will potentially be enabled by this manufacturing-friendly coating process. Additional commercial and health benefits could result from the replacement of current antifouling coatings containing toxic components.
