NSF Award
9960250
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is designed to utilize the ferroelectric (FE) properties of alpha helical polypeptides for development of materials for use in tissue repair, especially nerve fiber outgrowths in vitro and in vivo. Esters of poly-L-glutamic acids (PRLG's) are known to display piezoelectric (PE) properties when aligned in magnetic or electric fields. The molecular conformation of the aligned dipoles suggested that the direction of the dipole vector in aligned films may be reversed by application of an electric field, thus giving rise to FE properties. Given our discovery of the FE behavior of poly-methyl-L-glutamic acid, this Phase I project will focus on establishing the feasibility of this biocompatible material to enhance tissue repair in vivo for potential clinical application to peripheral nerve regeneration. Ferroelectrics find a number of applications: pyroelectric detectors, ultrasonic and electroacoustic transducers, and ultrasonic light modulators. The ease with which PRLG can be ordered in an externally applied electric field to create a film with strong dipole alignment suggests that it and other self-organizing and alignable biopolymers may also be suitable materials for development of FE materials for tissue regeneration.
