Aminoglycoside antibiotics are known to prevent growth of gram-negative bacteria by inhibiting protein synthesis. Aminoglycosides possess biocompatible sugar groups as well as multiple amines in the same molecule. Their tenability, biocompatibility and natural affinity towards biomolecules make them excellent candidates for generating diverse resins for multiple applications from biomaterials to protein and nucleic acid biotechnology.
Researchers at Arizona State University have developed novel chemo-mechanically tunable aminoglycoside-based resins which can be developed into multiple different architectures (microbeads, monolithic columns, macroporous hydrogel substrates, macrogels etc.) depending on the intended application. Multiple ligands can be attached to the resins to improve their biomolecule binding and biomaterial capabilities. An abundant presence of easily conjugable groups make the resin highly desirable for further conjugations and modifications. Further, these resins were used to create tunable dormant and reactivated 3D tumor microenvironments for studying and developing therapeutics to dormant tumors in remission, which are known to be resistant to conventional chemotherapeutics. These materials could also be used to develop novel engineered adhesive substrates to create a novel synthetic cell isolation platform.
These materials can be utilized for a variety of applications from pDNA purification, whole mammalian cell lysis for on-chip PCR reactions, point of care diagnostics, bone mimetic materials, cancer cell studies, to tissue welding and regenerative medicine.
Potential Applications
• pDNA purification
• Bone trabecular mimetics
o The gels can be strengthened with reinforcing agents such as carbon nanotubes, gold nanorods, hydroxyapatetite, etc.
• Creating 3D in-vitro models for cell culture/tumor dormancy
o Drug screening and discovery
o Studying cancer cells (relapse, drug resistance, micrometastasis, etc.)
• Stem cell differentiation substrates
• Tissue welding constructs
• Regenerative medicine
• On-chip PCR reactions
• Point-of-care diagnostics
Benefits and Advantages
• Highly cationic to bind very high amounts of pDNA/cargo
o pDNA binding capacity of ~6 mg of pDNA/mL of the resin
• Multiple conjugable sites for further modifications
• Chemotherapeutic drugs to bind pDNA via electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions
• This platform allows for isolation and separation of highly aggressive forms of cancer cells from the heterogeneous population
• Macroporous and non-macroporous morphologies
For more information about the inventor(s) and their research, please see
Dr. Rege’s directory webpage
Dr. Rege’s laboratory webpage