These dendrimers are comprised of building blocks known to be biocompatible or degradable in vivo to natural metabolites. We are synthesizing and characterizing novel dendrimers composed of glycerol and lactic acid for medical and tissue engineering applications. One of the keys to revolutionizing current implant technology is to manipulate the mechanical, optical, or electrical properties of a material in vivo . In situ photopolymerization is being applied to current challenges in dentistry, orthopedics, and ophthalmology. Specifically, the in situ formation of a hydrogel is of widespread interest, since hydrogels are already used in the biomedical and biotechnological fields in applications ranging from device coatings, drug delivery, to tissue engineering.
Corneal perforations are a common ophthalmic emergency that can lead to blindness.
Moreover, the current surgical treatment of suturing the wound is not effective and difficult to perform since this a traumatic and often irregularly shaped wound. An additional reason for selecting this type of wound and its management, is that the results are likely to translate to other surgical procedures where the site of the wound is difficult to manage and sutureless surgery is desired. In our first in vivo experiments we successfully sealed 3 mm corneal perforations in 37 of 38 eyes. Polymers, such as these are likely to be of interest for sutureless closure of wounds and for tissue reconstruction applications. Recently, we have developed and explored three methods for labeling nucleic acids with functional groups such as photoactive-transition metal complexes.