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Bioplastics 2016
November 10-11, 2016
Volume 7 Issue 6(Suppl) J Bioremediat Biodegrad
ISSN: 2155-6199 JBRBD, an open access journal
conferenceseries .com
November 10-11, 2016 Alicante, Spain
International Conference onSustainable Bioplastics
Daniel Brannum, J Bioremediat Biodegrad 2016, 7:6(Suppl)
Reconstitution of collagen triple helix in physically crosslinked hydrogels and films
Daniel Brannum
Case Western Reserve University, USA
The demand for viable materials to treat medical solutions such as tissue regeneration and bone regrowth in modern day
medicine has not yet been met. Though there have been many breakthroughs, in recent decades the advances are unfortunately
incremental. Collagen, being the most abundant protein found in the human extracellular matrix has been an attractive option
for treatment in these fields. However, properties such as thermal stability, solubility, and reconstitution of hierarchical structure
have proven to be challenging. Due to the poor solubility in standard solvents people have heated solution, used organic acids,
or even electrospun collagen mats. These methods destroy hydrogen bonding, denaturing the collagen into random coil type
polymers. The presented research highlights a benign solvent system that allows for an increase in collagen concentration levels
orders of magnitude higher than previously cited in literature. At the same time the collagen solution only temporarily disrupts
the hydrogen bonding making it possible to reconstitute the natural triple helix. This method is then used to form physical
crosslinked hydrogels and dry films. For additional stability and comparison of mechanical properties, chemical crosslinking
through known natural methods, such as genipin and riboflavin, were used. The fundamental understanding of collagen and
how to mimic physiological conditions will bring forward new advances in medical applications.
Biography
Daniel Brannum is starting his 5th year in the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Department at Case Western Reserve University. He has 2 patents pending
and multiple papers in preparation. During his time in graduate school, he has received the Bayer Award for excellence in research, dedication, and contribution to
the scientific community and earned internship positions at 3 different Fortune 500 companies.