Charlotte Hauser and other members of her Biodevices and Biodiagnostics team at A*STAR’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have (from a Nov. 9, 2011 news item on Nanowerk),
… designed a new class of ultrasmall peptides capable of self-assembling into a variety of structures such as membranes, micelles, tubules and gels that are suitable for application in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
They do seem to be doing a lot of interesting work at A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) located in Singapore. I notice that Hauser’s team is (like the team at the US Georgia Institute of Technology mentioned in my Nov. 9, 2011 posting) working on a ‘Microneedle Array for Transdermal Drug Delivery’.
As for the work on peptides (from the news item on Nanowerk),
The unique class of self-assembling peptides designed by the IBN research team consists of only 3 to 7 amino acids, in contrast to conventional peptides that usually require 16 to 32 amino acids. Each peptide molecule is characterized by a water-soluble ‘polar head’ and a water-insoluble ‘tail’, and this ampiphilic property enables the molecules to self-assemble spontaneously in water to form hydrogels—stiff, water-based gels held together by stable fibrous structures. These natural peptide-based hydrogels offer an attractive, low-cost alternative for the manufacture of biomimetic materials, as they do not require the addition of enzymes or chemical agents during the process of formation.
A*STAR’s Sept. 12, 2011 news release notes that this new material could be used to repair spinal disc damage,
The unique class of peptides developed by IBN has similar gel strength as the jelly-like material in the spinal disc. Dr Charlotte Hauser, IBN Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist elaborated, “There is a huge unmet clinical need for a prosthetic device that can inhibit or repair early-stage disc damage. Our biocompatible peptide hydrogels could be injected into the body to stimulate disc regeneration or used for artificial disc replacement. This peptide-based approach could offer an alternative to spinal surgery by delaying or even abolishing the need for invasive surgery. Our ultrasmall peptides can also be easily translated to clinical use because they are easy and cost-effective to produce.”
Published recently in the leading nanoscience and nanotechnology journal, Nano Today, IBN’s self-assembling peptides imitate nature by forming ordered structures using molecular recognition. This self-assembly approach is emerging as an important new strategy in bioengineering because it allows the peptides to form easily into various structures such as membranes, micelles and gels. The essence of this ‘Lego’-like technology lies in the unique design of the peptide.
I’ve known a few people with those kinds of injuries and this sounds like it could be a huge improvement over procedures (fusing the spine) used currently to ameliorate the situation.