Updates from our 2025 Future Materials Innovators Program students
Nov 28, 2025
2:30PM to 3:30PM
Date/Time
Date(s) - 28/11/2025
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Categories
1- Carbon Nanotube Decorated Photocrosslinked Microgels as pH and Temperature Sensors, by Kyle Stegman (Saravanamuttu group), Heather Sweny (Stover group), Daniel Hrabowyj (Adronov group), Adam Fortier (Saravanamuttu/Vargas group)
Stimuli-responsive “smart” materials possess immense potential for sensoric applications due to their unique physical and chemical responses to a wide range of stimuli. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are allotropes of carbon that are often utilized for their remarkable electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Although they are good conductors individually, in bulk samples, contact between the nanotubes is required for widespread conductance. Upon contraction or swelling of the microgel substrate to which the SWCNTs are bound, the spacing and density of overlaps between SWCNTs will change, as will the conductance of the sample, allowing for quantification of external stimuli. Microgels, which will serve as scaffolds onto which the SWCNTs are doped, can be customized to respond to specific stimuli, such as pH or temperature, through the careful selection of comonomers. Narrowly disperse stimuli-responsive microspheres can be reliably synthesized via precipitation polymerization. Due to their high surface area, microsphere-based scaffolds will allow for greater overlap of SWCNTs compared to uniform films. During photopolymerization, localized areas will exhibit an increase in density with a concomitant increase in refractive index. Using specialized optics, these regions can be patterned on the microscale to create light guiding architectures known as waveguides that are permanently inscribed in the material. These are microchannels made up of densely packed polymer networks. We anticipate that the deswelling of the microgel channels will result in a measurable increase in conductance due to an increase in overlap of SWCNTs. By exploring different sized microgels, we aim to be able to modify the concentration of SWCNTs doped on the periphery of the scaffold in hopes of modulating the overlap ratio upon deswelling.
2- Gradually Softening Lung ECM Hydrogels for Investigating Mechanical Memory in Profibrotic Macrophages, by Mohammadhossein Dabaghi (Hirota group), Quan Zhou (Kolb group), David Gonzalez Martinez and Aidee Arizpe Tafoya (Moran-Mirabal group)
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal lung disease marked by excessive scarring of lung tissue, culminating in respiratory failure and a median survival of only 3–5 years after diagnosis. Current antifibrotic therapies can slow disease progression but do not halt or reverse it, underscoring the urgent need for novel interventions. A central feature of IPF is the abnormally stiff extracellular matrix (ECM), which not only impairs lung function but also profoundly shapes cellular behavior. Myofibroblasts, key drivers of persistent fibrosis, exhibit mechanical memory, whereby prolonged exposure to a stiff ECM leads to sustained profibrotic activity even after the mechanical stimulus is removed. While this phenomenon has been characterized in fibroblasts and mesenchymal stem cells, its existence and significance in macrophages remain poorly understood. Macrophages are critical to lung homeostasis and repair, yet in IPF, a subset of these cells—the profibrotic alveolar macrophages—can perpetuate tissue damage by secreting cytokines and growth factors that drive myofibroblast activation. Emerging evidence suggests that the stiff microenvironment in fibrotic lungs may reprogram these macrophages through mechanotransduction pathways, potentially leading to a persistent profibrotic phenotype. However, whether alveolar macrophages develop a comparable mechanical memory has not been systematically investigated. This proposal aims to address this gap by examining the potential for macrophages to acquire and retain profibrotic traits in response to stiff ECM using a dynamically softening hydrogel derived from decellularized porcine lung tissue. By coupling in vitro culture of polarized macrophages with a controlled transition from fibrotic-like to healthy-lung–like stiffness, we will delineate the mechanistic underpinnings of macrophage mechanical memory and assess whether targeted interventions can reverse or prevent this profibrotic reprogramming. Unraveling these processes could expose new therapeutic targets for IPF and lay the groundwork for broader interventions in a wider range of fibrotic disorders.
Followed by a BIMR Reception!
We are pleased to invite all our members to a Reception after the Future Materials Innovators Seminar, to celebrate the end of the Fall term. Join us to share a few appetizers and mingle with your colleagues.
Reception to follow the Seminar just outside room ABB 102.
In-Person: ABB 102
Online: Echo360