Polymer Microarrays for Biomaterial Development

Polymer biomaterials have truly become integrated into modern day healthcare and medical science. These range from the basic, such as culture equipment and blood bags, to the complex, stimuli-dependent hydrogels, and leukocyte filters. Polymer microarrays have greatly improved the discovery of biologically relevant interactions by interrogating a chosen biological material against a library of polymers, simultaneously. In this work, the polymer microarray approach is applied in two different biological contexts to identify promising candidates for biomaterial development, as well as expanding the repertoire of polymer microarray application. Specifically the identification of polymer substrates for: the scavenge of DNA-based DAMPs in a blood based application; and for the enrichment of cancerous and precancerous cervical cells for improved cytology of PreservCyt®-treated LBC samples, has been investigated.
Using this approach, we have identified a number of poly(acrylate), poly(acrylamide), and poly(urethane) candidates that, while resistant to blood cell attachment, were capable of binding to mtDNA and nDNA. A second investigation has also elucidated substrates with preferential binding for fixed cervical cell lines, including the precancerous W12 model. These findings demonstrate the versatility of this experimental approach by providing some of the first examples of molecule-polymer and preserved cell-polymer interactions, identified via microarray.