Materials with biological activity: design and applications

ALDABE BILMES, SARA

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Conferencia; 19th International Sol-Gel Conference; 2017

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Materials with biological activity: design and applicationsSara A. BilmesUniversidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Analítica y Química-física (DQIAQF) and Instituto de Química de Materiales, medio Ambiente y Energía (INQUIMAE); Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina.Materials with biological activity can be understood as a material in which living cells -either single cells or colonies- are enclosed. The challenge is to maintain cells active in order they synthesize metabolites that can be useful as a product or for sensing.Sol-gel process provides a unique pathway for encapsulate cells in oxides, such as silica. Although single cells encapsulated in a silica matrix maintain their biological activity, they cannot divide and their performance is limited. Another 2-step approach is to pre-encapsulate cells in a Ca- alginate bead which is further surrounded by the oxide in a way that cells may be able to live for long times.The silica matrix must be carefully designed to achieve an adequate structure to have mechanical resistance, as well as a fine tuning of pores allowing controlled mass transport to and/or from the cells, but limiting the entrance and exit of cells and virus. In addition, synthesis should avoid reactants and by-products that may damage the cell vitality. In this lecture, I will summarize our work on the design of silica gels for encapsulating photosynthetic algae by the 2-step procedure for different purposes: biosensors, bio-reactors, and biosynthesis of noble metal nanoparticles.