Laboratory of Bioengineering and Nanomedicine

The Laboratory of Bioengineering and Nanomedicine focuses on biomaterials, nanomedicine, tissue engineering and immuno-engineering.

We use natural biopolymers such as the glycosaminoglycans for engineering bioresponsive materials with defined immune response. These natural polymers regulate important cellular processes, such as cell migration, viability, morphogenesis, and differentiation as well as modulate immune responses

Harnessing the transformative power of synthetic chemistry for biomedical application is the primary goal of our research. Our mission is to address major biological challenges in translational research using the polymers produced by our cells – ‘the extracellular matrix (ECM). We utilise glycosaminoglycans (a key component of extracellular matrix) and synthetic polymers for tailoring 3D scaffolds, designing nanomedicine, cell surface engineering and designing molecular conjugates for delivering small-molecule drugs and nucleic acids.

Using glycosaminoglycans, we engineer functional materials for medical applications, such as targeted drug and gene delivery, bionanoparticles, tissue regeneration, and cell therapy.

The laboratory is founded upon cutting-edge multi-disciplinary research in the areas of biomaterials, nanomedicine, drug delivery, gene delivery, cardiac and bone tissue engineering, stem cell engineering for transplantation, and immunomodulation of cells and materials. This interdisciplinary research involves cross-fertilisation of several disciplines, such as biomedical engineering, biotechnology, organic chemistry, polymer chemistry and material science.

Our strong collaborations across Europe and Japan enable us to do world-class multidisciplinary research.

Our findings have been reported in the following journal articles:

• Nanomedicine. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, doi:10.1002/anie.201900099; Chem Commun 2016, 52, 966-969; ACS Applied Materials and Interface, 2016, 8, 20614–20624; Macromolecular bioscience 2014, 14, 327-333; Biomaterials Sciences, 2016, 4, 1310-1313; Adv. Funct. Mater., 2015, 25, 3907–3915,
• Bone Tissue Engineering. Engineer dynamic 3D scaffold for the efficient delivery of rhBMP-2. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2013, 23, 1273–1280; J. Controlled Rel., 2012, 162, 646-653; Biomaterials 2018, 161, 190-202.
• Cardiac Tissue Engineering. Decellularized pericardial matrix derived conductive scaffold for cardiac TE (RSC Advances, 2017, 7, 31980-31988).
• Cell Engineering and Studying cell-matrix interaction. Cell surface engineering of Islet cells (Biomaterials 2013, 34, 2683-2693) and study stem cell-matrix interactions (Nature Communications, 2018, 9, 4049
• Bioconjugation reactions: Chemical Commun., 2018, 54, 12507-12510; Chemistry–A European J. 2015, 21 (15), 5980-5985

Oommen p. Oommen

Professor

oommen.oommen [at] tuni.fi

+358 50 447 8904