Executive Summary : | Objective: Health related problems are considered to be the top-most challenges daunting in front of mankind in the 21st century. The evolution of artificial body parts has been playing a crucial role in the medical field in recent days. The restoration of damaged or non-functional body parts can be realized with artificial transplantation. The precise mimic of the functioning of body part(s) with artificial component (s) in terms of physio-chemical and biological means is a challenging artifact. The metallic artificial parts are well known and most commonly employed in bone damage and / or fractures. Mostly metallic implants are used as permanent fixation implants (hip, knees, spine, etc.) which endure until our life. Sometimes, the metallic implants need to be removed once the body part is fully recovered, and it depends on the time of recovery of a specific body part, whether short-term or long-term. Despite the high mechanical strength and modulus, metal components impose high weight, corrosion and metal ion leaching problems. In order to overcome these issues, polymer-based systems would be more beneficial, since the polymers are light weight and can have the mechanical flexibility in the range of elastic to tough behavior. Moreover, bio-degradable polymer scaffolds can be used as temporary matrix, where the scaffold degrades / disintegrate with respect to time with simultaneous tissue growth regenerating the damaged / diseased body part. Since the bacterial infection is rather possible during surgical events in tissue restoration, it would be more advantageous if the scaffold bears antibacterial properties also. Hence, the prime objective of the proposed work is to develop polymer / polymer composite fibrous materials with antibacterial properties (Ag- doped polymer systems and Ag- free polymer systems). The electrospun fibrous materials will be extensively characterized for structural, morphological, mechanical and physio-chemical properties. Also, the bio-compatibility and degradation studies will be performed in simulated biological environment. More importantly, the polymer scaffolds fabricated using 3D- printing method will be subjected to in vitro studies in bone specific cell lines to assess the osteointegration and osteogenic potential of the developed scaffolds and its validation in critical size bone defects in suitable animal model, to understand their suitability as implantable material in human body. Screening, synthesis and characterization of potential artificial/synthetic receptors using computational approaches Summary: This research proposal is aimed at design and synthesis of artificial receptor molecules, as alternate stable mimics to the conventional bioreceptors such as antibodies, enzymes, aptamers with unique selectivity and increased stability. Producing such materials would be beneficial in reducing the cost associated with producing conventional receptors molecules. The method that is being increasingly utilized for producing artificial bioreceptor molecules is molecular imprinting technique. Molecular imprinting technique is used to create specific binding sites in polymeric matrix which are structurally complementary to target molecules/molecules of interest. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) are synthetic polymeric materials which have recognition sites that are selective towards the target analyte. They are considered to be versatile, stable, and cost-effective substitutes for the natural antibodies. MIPs exhibit longer self-life than enzymes, antibody counterparts. MIPs also allow reversible binding with the target analyte, which makes the MIP based molecules suitable for constructing reusable sensing technologies. MIP potentially can have a huge impact on environmental applications and in molecular separation process due to their low cost, easy storage, and applicability in harsh conditions. The challenge in producing MIPs with greater affinity lies in selecting the right monomer. In order to understand the properties of MIPs at molecular level, the model of the template-monomer model complexes will be set up. The selectivity and binding affinity of these MIPs are intimately related to the initial strength/integrity of the template–monomer complex. Consequently, the optimization of MIP formulation demands consideration of the governing interactions between the template and the functional monomer. Computational modelling based on quantum chemical techniques have been extensively studied in the past years to explore and choose optimal synthetic receptors for any given template molecule of interest. The success of this method lies in optimizing the interaction between template and functional monomer in the pre-polymerization mixture, thereby, facilitating the selection of most suitable functional monomer with the highest binding energy for the target molecule where computational modelling can be useful. |