Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019).

The performance of implantable medical devices can often be improved by a surface engineering procedurex000D
allowing to either tune the surface chemistry to improve interactions with surrounding biological media or tox000D
graft active elements that will have a direct effect. Our laboratory has developed a flexible surface engineeringx000D
procedure that can achieve either of these effects. We use cold plasma (an ionized gas produced as anx000D
electrical discharge) to deposit organic coatings containing nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur functional groups. Ourx000D
method is to mix a film forming gas, such as ethylene, with a source of heteroatom, such at ammonia, and tox000D
activate those gasses in a plasma to trigger the formation of organic coatings. The properties of these organicx000D
coatings can be adjusted with the process parameters, such as gas composition. The functional groups in thex000D
coatings can either indirectly affect cell processes by governing protein adhesion or be used as chemicalx000D
anchors to covalently bond active molecules.x000D
Our proposed industrial partner, Phagelux (Canada) Inc. has developed a technology to attach bacteriophages tox000D
the surface of titanium implants to prevent infection following implantation. They have used plasma depositedx000D
organic coating to favor the attachment of the phages. However, their method involves toxic and corrosivex000D
gasses offering limited adjustability in terms of coating properties. Moreover, they have limited accessibility tox000D
the method as it is done through an international subcontractant. We propose a research collaboration tox000D
develop and optimize a procedure to attach bacteriophages to titanium samples using our highly tunable plasmax000D
polymerized coatings. The development of a successful procedure would initiate a long-term collaborationx000D
involving in-vivo testing of the titanium implants while Phagelux expands its research activities in Canada.