UCLA

Nature has developed advanced materials after billions of years of evolution in an exquisite way, giving rise to elaborate materials with optimized designs, architectures, properties, and functionalities. These functionalities emerge from the directed assembly of biomolecules from the molecular level up to the length scales relevant to living cells, cellular tissue, and entire organisms. Inspired by these bottom-up assembly processes, I have developed materials that self-assemble into active substrates mimicking the actuation found in living muscle fibers. The resulting bioinspired materials display properties that mimic endogenous viscoelastic properties found in collagen and, consequently, push muscle cellular differentiation faster than the state-of-the-art elastic scaffolds. During my PhD, I developed a nonwoven CLC electrospun scaffold by dispersing three cholesteryl ester-based mesogens within polycaprolactone (PCL). We tuned the ratio of our mesogens so that the CLC would be in the mesophase at the cell culture incubator temperature of 37 °C. In these scaffolds, the PCL polymer provided an elastic bulk matrix while the homogeneously dispersed CLC established a viscoelastic fluidlike interface. Increasing the CLC concentration within the composites enhanced myoblast adhesion strength promoted myofibril formation in vitro with mouse myoblast cell lines. Cholesteryl ester liquid crystals (CLCs) intrinsic ability to organize into supramolecular helicoidal structures on the mesoscale allows cell-helix interaction to create dynamic biomaterials. Inspired by the shoaling behavior of fish, I devised a method to deploy the CLC-helix to orchestrate and to template the three-dimensional aggregation of anchorage-dependent cells lines. The 3D cellular aggregates are rapidly produced off the dynamic scaffold providing a platform to manufacture cost-effective organoids for precision medicine and cellular agriculture. As scientists, it is our calling to provide solutions to protect society. During my PhD, we were faced with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We developed a self-cleaning fabric ambient environment sunlight provides enough energy to stimulate the band gap of embedded 3D anisotropic nanoparticles fiber matrix, mixing the dimensionality of the nanomaterial mentioned gives rise to rose-thorn-like protrusions a natural defense plant morphology seen in nature. Herpes simplex virus (HSV) plagues billions of humans with infections globally. We have developed and demonstrated rose-thorn-inspired antiviral fibrous arrays by electrospinning a composite of polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer with a dispersion of anisotropic zinc oxide tetrapod nanoparticles (ZOTeN). This rose-thorn-mimicking material enables physical and chemical protection. Under blue-light stimulation, ZOTeN photocatalyzes the production of hydrogen peroxide for an accessible disinfection and sterilizing mechanism to prolong materials usage. The fibrous material has dose-dependent antiviral properties against both HSV-1 and HSV-2. The engineered mats can potentially be used for manufacturing antiviral garments, face coverings, and bandages.