Alvaro Mata

Knight Campus Seminar Series 

Alvaro Mata portrait

Join Alvaro Mata, professor in Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, for a Knight Campus Seminar, "Supramolecular engineering: from nanoscale design to macroscopic functionality in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine."

When: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Where: Swindells Room, Erb Memorial Union, University of Oregon

The Knight Campus Seminar Series
The Knight Campus Seminar brings nationally and internationally recognized science, technology and engineering researchers to the University of Oregon community.

Biography
Alvaro Mata is professor in Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas, a master's degree from the University of Strathclyde, and a doctor of engineering degree from Cleveland State University working with professor Shuvo Roy. He conducted his postdoctoral training with professor Samuel Stupp at Northwestern University working on self-assembling materials. From 2008-2013 he was head of the Nanotechnology Platform at Parc Científic Barcelona, and from 2014-2017 was the director of the Institute of Bioengineering at QMUL. He holds six patents or patent applications; publications in journals including Science, Nature Chemistry, and Nature Materials; and awards such as the Baxter Early Career Award in 2006, Ramon y Cajal Award in 2010, an ERC Staring Grant in 2013, and a Frontiers Innovator Award from the Wellcome Trust in 2015. He is a member of the Board of the Biomedical Engineering Association, Editorial Board of several leading biomaterial journals, and the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform – Smart Materials Hub

Abstract
There is great interest to develop new materials with advanced properties that resemble those of biological systems such as hierarchical organization and the capacity to grow or self-heal. To this end, supramolecular chemistry offers an exciting opportunity to grow materials with nanoscale precision. However, the ability to transform molecular design into functional devices with utility at the macroscale remains a challenge. The talk will describe new strategies that integrate supramolecular chemistry with engineering principles to develop practical materials with tuneable and advanced properties such as hierarchical organization1,2, the capacity to grow2,3, tuneable mechanical properties2,and specific bioactivity4. These materials are being used to develop new regenerative therapies of tissues such as enamel, bone, and blood vessels as well as more biologically relevant in vitro models for applications in cancer and neurological disorders.

References
1. Hedegaard et al, (2018). Advanced Functional Materials 10.1002/adfm.201703716.
2. Elsharkawy et al, (2018). Nature Communications 10.1038/s41467-018-04319-0.
3. Inostroza-Brito et al, (2015).  Nature Chemistry 7(11), 897-904. 10.1038/nchem.2349.
4. Aguilar et al, (2017). Advanced Functional Materials 10.1002/adfm.201703014.