Nano-structured Coatings to Help Understand Behavior of Cells

A research team at INM, Leibniz Institute for New Materials and the Flinders University in Adelaide will collaborate on a program to study the interaction between implant surfaces and the surrounding human cells and tissues.

The project will be jointly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) and the Australian Academy of Science. The work will combine INM technology in surface structuring with biomedical inputs from Professor Voelcker. The teams will use multiple techniques to develop nano-structured coatings, on which cells will be cultured. The behavior of the cells will then be studied. Tobias Kraus, who leads the INM junior research group, Structure Formation at Small Scales states that they will create surfaces featuring special properties that will change slowly from end to end. The process will help analyze, which surface the cells prefer on a single prototype. When viewed in conjunction with the results of multiple surface alterations, a surface that accurately fits could be selected based on need for implants.