Connect with us

Biomedical Hydrogels

Hydrogels are a promising soft material platform which can be engineered to show similar properties to native tissue, and utilised in a variety of biomedical applications, such as to deliver drugs, culture cells or even replace native tissue.  In our group, we aim to build upon existing thermoresponsive hydrogels at IMRE to make advances in ocular devices and therapeutics, and to develop novel hydrogel materials inspired by unmet biomedical needs.

Our research is in three main areas:

  1. Therapeutic thermogels: Designing next generation thermogelling systems for a variety of therapeutic applications
  2. Data-driven biomaterials: Harnessing big data tools to drive hydrogel-based biomaterial discovery and optimisation
  3. Multifunctional hybrid hydrogels: Developing hydrogels with the latest functionalities for improved responsive properties
biomedical-hydrogel-image-1

1) THERAPEUTIC THERMOGELS

Thermogels are amongst the most effective and useful in situ formed hydrogels due to the universality of tapping on physiological temperatures for biomedical applications.  However, typical thermogels such as Pluronics are not biocompatible and show toxicity in the body. We engineer biodegradable polyurethane thermogels with tunable mechanical properties, which can be used for broad therapeutic applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Representative Publications









  • Patents: Ocular drug delivery by topical and intravitreal delivery (SG 10201907554S, SG 10202108149Q)
    Biomedical Hydrogel Image 2

2) DATA-DRIVEN BIOMATERIALS

Biomaterials has made big advances so far to human health and wellness.  Due to the innate complexity, it is a formidable challenge to get a clear understanding of the relationships between the observed performance and the underlying chemistry and structures.  With high throughput experimentation and multi-dimensional data generation and utilization, we aim to transform the paradigm in advancing hydrogel biomaterials, from conventional empirical methods to data-driven approaches assisted by machine learning.  

Representative Publications



Biomedical Hydrogel Image 3

3) MULTIFUNCTIONAL HYBRID HYDROGELS

Rational design of advanced hydrogels for biomedical applications needs to fulfil multiple criteria, including resistance to physiological stresses, dynamic and cell-responsive remodelling, and independent, orthogonal stimuli responsiveness.  To develop hydrogels with new emergent properties, we design and embed functionalities into hydrogels by strategies such as hybrid networks, dynamic crosslinks and fabrication techniques.  

Representative Publications



  • Patent: Stimuli-responsive hydrogel systems (US 10683379)
Biomedical Hydrogel Image 4

Contact

A*STAR celebrates International Women's Day

A*STAR Women In Science

From groundbreaking discoveries to cutting-edge research, our researchers are empowering the next generation of female science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) leaders.