Professor Samuel Stupp

Supramolecular Therapeutics for Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

Novel treatments for challenging diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative conditions, and osteoarthritis, as well as serious injuries are critical for transformative improvements in human quality of life and healthy aging. Most efforts around the world focus on small molecule drugs, biologics such as growth factors and antibodies, as well as the promise of cell therapies. Many diseases and injuries of course could benefit from regeneration of tissues that become dysfunctional and thus the nature of therapies needs to be different from those in use today. During development, homeostasis, or post injury, tissue regeneration relies on signals nested in the mechanically supportive environment of extracellular matrices (ECMs). Using this bio-inspired notion, our laboratory has focused on the development of supramolecular therapeutics for regeneration as bioactive and fully biodegradable artificial ECMs. In our work these systems are based on megascale assemblies of peptides or glycopeptides that can directly activate cell receptors or amplify signaling by endogenous growth factors. Thus, in the translational context these novel therapeutics are considered either drugs or drug-devices since they signal cells directly and importantly can have much longer half-lives than protein or nucleic acid therapeutics. The lecture will illustrate examples of these supramolecular systems with breakthroughs on their potential for bone and cartilage repair for osteoarthritis, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular therapies, and spinal cord injury.