Dr. Mark DeCoster
— Interdisciplinary team creates biocomposite for first time
using physiological conditions —
(August 24, 2015)
Faculty at Louisiana Tech University have discovered, for the first
time, a new nanocomposite formed by the self-assembly of copper and a
biological component that occurs under physiological conditions, which are
similar to those found in the human body and could be used in targeted drug
delivery for fighting diseases such as cancer.
The team, led by Dr. Mark DeCoster, the James E. Wyche III
Endowed Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Louisiana Tech, has
also discovered a way for this synthesis to be carried out in liquid form. This
would allow for controlling the scale of the synthesis up or down, and to grow
structures with larger features, so they can be observed.
The discovery was published last month in the journal JoVE
(Journal of Visualized Experiments) – a highly-visible, peer-reviewed
international journal. Since its publication, the article titled, “Generation
of Scalable, Metallic High-Aspect Ratio Nanocomposites in a Biological Liquid
Medium” has been viewed hundreds of times by dozens of universities around the
world.
“We are currently investigating how this new material
interacts with cells,” said DeCoster. “It may be used, for example for drug
delivery, which could be used in theory for fighting diseases such as cancer.
Also, as a result of the copper component that we used, there could be some
interesting electronics, energy, or optics applications that could impact
consumer products. In addition, copper has some interesting and useful
antimicrobial features.