Polymer Microarrays - Fabrication and Biological Application for Cellular Control and Manipulation

Abstract
Prof. Bradley will demonstrate a variety of approaches for at the preparation and high-content screening of polymer microarray platform and their application in a number of cell based screens. Fabrication methods, including direct inkjet based polymer synthesis and analysis with fixed and live cells on over 10,000 features will be described.
Using polymer technology he will show how polymers have been identified and then developed for a myriad of applications, including control of stem cells fate, corneal bandages, bacterial capture and thermally responsive surfaces. This includes:
(i). Polymer blends that can find use as implants which support cell attachment, growth and differentiation, and tissue regeneration in vivo and can be used in bone repair: This has led, for example, to polymers that are able to bind Sto+ cells and promote bone regeneration (Biomaterials, 2010, 31, 2216–2228) with materials now entering large animal models the first step on the road to human application.
(ii). Polymers able to support long term highly functional hESC-derived hepatocyte like cells (showing high levels of both CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 expression) and which are now being explored as a coating on an extra-corporeal support for trials in bio-artificial liver devices.
(iii). Polymers displaying binding or inhibition of binding of bacteria.
(iv). Polymers that bind human stem cells, maintain them in a highly controlled state, yet allow mild thermal release, while maintaining full pluripotency.

Resume
Mark received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1989 under the supervision of Professor Sir Jack Baldwin, followed by post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and returned to the UK as a Royal Society Fellow at Southampton University in the early 90’s. In 1997 at the age of 33 he was made a Professor of Combinatorial Chemistry. He has been elected to fellowships of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held the Novartis Young Investigator Award, the Zeneca Research Award for Organic Chemistry, the GlaxoWellcome Award for Innovative Chemistry, the Pfizer Award in Organic chemistry and more recently, the Novartis Chemistry Lectureship and the Award from the Society of Combinatorial Sciences. In 2011 he was awarded the Chancellors Award for research. His group has published over 240 peer reviewed papers and 20 patents and more than 65 PhD students have graduated from his group.

Three themes dominate at this time:
(i). The development and exploitation of polymer microarray technology for the identification and application of polymers for controlling and modulating cells.
(ii). The development of “smart” fluorescent reporters for clinical optical imaging.
(iii). In vivo catalytic chemistry.

Sponsored by Department of Research Development