Functional Hydrogels as Biomaterials

Jun Li is a Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He is also a Senior Member of the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering (NGS). Before joining NUS, he was a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. Prof. Li’s expertise lies across the synthesis and modification of both synthetic and bio-based polymers, and their supramolecular self-assemblies for various applications such as drug and gene delivery, tissue engineering, personal care, and environmental sustainability.Yoshihito Osada is a Professor emeritus of Hokkaido University, Japan. He is the Special Advisor to, and was the Deputy Director of the Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN, Japan. Before joining RIKEN, he was the Executive and Vice President of Hokkaido University, and was a Professor of Polymer Chemistry in the Division of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University. Prof. Osada’s research interests are in the areas of polymer gels, artificial muscles, and bio-nanomachines.Justin Cooper-White is a Professor at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, Australia. Prof. Cooper-White’s research interests include biomaterials processing, tissue engineering, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, rheology and microfluidics. His projects in all of these areas have a common focus on providing fundamental insights into complex polymer-based structures and systems, with the aim of ultimately tailoring and controlling their interactions with biological systems.

• Biosynthetic hydrogels for cell encapsulation.- Synthetic hydrogels for expansion functional endothelial cells.- Hydrogels for directed stem cell differentiation and tissue repair.- Cross-linking of biological components for stem cell culture.- Hydrogels for stem cell encapsulation: Towards cellular therapy for diabetes.- Mobile properties of supramolecular polyrotaxane surfaces on modulation of cellular functions.- Recent advances in polymer-cyclodextrin inclusion complex based supramolecular hydrogel for biomedical applications.