* 597 credit requires additional independent research paper and presentation

Biocompatibility of materials in various biomedical and biotechnical applications, that is to say the success in use of a non-viable material in contact with biology, is thought to be controlled or mediated by physicochemical events that transpire immediately after a material surface contacts a biological fluid. This "biological response" to material surfaces may be viewed as a sequence of events that propagates from a surface along both spatial and temporal coordinates. The spatial coordinate ranges from the first few molecular layers surrounding the biology-contacting surface to macroscopic distances that delimit the boundaries of the host, defining local and systemic responses, respectively. The temporal coordinate varies from short-term or acute responses to long-term or chronic responses. This course will use contact activation of the blood plasma coagulation cascade, bioadhesion, and protein adsorption as example biological responses to material surfaces to illustrate how biochemical events conspire along these coordinates and control the observed biocompatibility of materials. Leading theories attempting to correlate both kind and intensity of biological responses to surface and interfacial energetics will be compared and contrasted through a process that will quantify important surface thermodynamic properties of materials. The hydrophobic effect and related phenomena, especially as this pertains to water solvent effects in biology, will receive special attention. Significant emphasis will be placed on biomaterial surface characterization and application of surface thermodynamics. Students will become familiar with the use of surface spectroscopy (ESCA and SIMS) and tensiometry (contact angle and wettability) in the characterization biomaterials surfaces.

Web-based course materials will be drawn from the primary scientific literature and relevant secondary texts covering selected topics is biology, biomaterials, surface, and colloid science. Course assignments will include substantial independent reading and discussion, 2-3 take-home exams, and a final "practical" exam requiring material-science solution to hypothetical problems in the application of materials in medical devices.

Prerequisites: Biomaterials and bioengineering are interdisciplinary fields of science. The essential requirements of this course are (i) a strong undergraduate-level background in the biological and/or physical sciences supplemented with (ii) a desire to expand and apply this background beyond the confines of a particular specialization.