Krasimir Vasilev

Mawson Institute and School of Advance Manufacturing - University of South Australia

Jueves 2/9/2010, 14 hs
Aula Federman, 1er piso, Pabellón I 

Functional coatings presenting a variety of functional surface groups (e.g. amine, carboxyl, epoxy, aldehyde, etc) can be readily prepared by plasma polymerisation in an easy one step process. Applications of such films span over a range of fields from modification of biomaterials to protective coatings. 

In my talk I will present recent developments from our group on various biomaterial coatings prepared by plasma polymerisation which include chemical and biomolecular gradients, antibacterial coatings and drug release platforms. 

Surface gradients are important tools for studying and guiding cellular responses such as migration, adhesion, differentiation, etc. We are particularly interested in density gradients of nanoparticles which we aim to use as a tool to study how the magnitude and spacing of the nanoscale surface features affect cell behaviour. 

In the second part of my talk I will present our recent research on development of antibacterial coatings. Varying parameters such as time of reduction, time of silver loading and thickness of the plasma polymer film gave us a versatile tool for controlling the amount of silver nanoparticles loaded in the films. Bacterial tests showed excellent antibacterial properties against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. 

In the last part of my talk I will present methods for fabrication of drug delivery platforms for controlled release. Control of the release rate of the drug is exercised via a plasma polymer films which covers the drug particles, and the thickness of the plasma polymer film determines the release kinetics.