Biomaterials like therapeutic drugs can be delivered in to the body to produce a desired effect, and this project explores the development of a novel hydrogel, which can be injected through a syringe into the body as a method of delivery. Hydrogels do this by a process called gelation, the conversion of liquid to gel. One of the major issues with the delivery of hydrogels is that once gelation is initiated the resulting gel is susceptible to clogging the delivery needles/catheters. By utilising light activated gelation (termed photo-initiation) the hydrogel can be ejected from the delivery device (e.g needle) and only then then turned into a gel via the application of light. This light is often UV wavelength which can result in cell death. The proposed project is a completely novel hydrogel design which uses only natural materials and be turned into a gel using blue light which is far freidlier to cells. My role in the project would be to fabricate a series of these novel light sensitive hydrogels and determine the structural and mechanical properties, in addition to optimising the biocompatibility to create a hydrogel platform for stem cell drug delivery.
