Mariya Tulchynska

Bachelor student

Fabrication and characterization of functionalized PCL-based electrospun nanofibers for drug delivery applications

 

Supervisors: Dr. Liliana Liverani, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Electrospinning is a well-developed method for producing fibers for a variety of applications, including in biomedicine. In the last years, the use of benign solvents for electrospinning, which have reduced or absent toxicity for humans and capability to not affect the polymers electrospinnability have been widely investigated [1]. In particular, acetic acid and formic acid have been combined with poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), a synthetic biodegradable polymer, to obtain nanofibrous mats suitable for several tissue engineering applications. Due to the relative large surface area to volume ratio properties of electrospun fibers and their porous interconnected architecture, they are suitable for drug delivery purposes. The main aim of this thesis project is the fabrication and characterization of PCL-based electrospun nanofibers functionalized with biomolecules as drug delivery systems, mainly for wound healing applications.

[1] L. Liverani et al., Fibronectin functionalized electrospun fibers by using benign solvents: best way to achieve effective functionalization, Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 7 (2019) 68.