Events Calendar

Seminars in Biomedical Engineering

Speaker: Qiming Wang, PhD, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering (USC)

Talk Title: Bioinspired anti-biofouling via active deformation: from marine structures to biomedical devices

Series: Seminars in Engineering, Neuroscience & Health (ENH)

Abstract: Biofouling, the accumulation of boiomolecules, cells, microorganisms and their deposits on submerged and implanted surfaces, is a ubiquitous problem across many human endeavors including maritime operations, medicine, food industries and biotechnology. Examples include: (i) the high cost of mitigation of biofouling on maritime vessels, (ii) the growing significance of infectious biofilms (matrix-enclosed microbial adlayers) as a failure mode of implanted materials and devices, and (iii) the adaptation of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains within biofilms in medical and industrial settings. Creating environmentally friendly and biocompatible surfaces that can effectively manage biofouling has been an extremely challenging task. Existing commercial antifouling technologies generally rely on either toxic biocides or static coatings that suffer drawbacks in ecological impacts or long-term effectiveness. In Nature, an enormous number of biological surfaces clean themselves through active deformation and motion; for example, cilia on the surfaces of respiratory tracts constantly sweep out inhaled foreign particles that are sequestered in hydrated, protective mucus layers. Inspired from this physical approach of antifouling, we demonstrate a method to actively and effectively detach micro- and macro-fouling organisms by harnessing dynamic change of surface area and topology of biocompatible elastomers in response to external stimuli. We hypothesize that the fouling detachment is an interfacial debonding process due to the large deformation of the elastomer substrate. The hypothesis has been tested and verified with various types of microbes and marine animals, including Cobetia marina, Ecoli, P. Mirabilis and barnacles. The results show that substrate deformation can detach over 90% of attached biofoulings. These dynamic surfaces can be fabricated from materials that are already commonly used in marine coatings and medical devices and can be actuated by practical electrical and pneumatic stimuli. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in the field studies in the Ocean and prototype models for urinary catheter. Assisted by the additive manufacture technology in our lab, we expect this dynamic fouling-releasing method may find broad applications in various settings of biomedical devices and water purification/desalinization.

Biography: Qiming Wang is Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Southern California. His recent research interests are focused on two folds: (1) additive manufacture of soft active materials for applications in adaptable lightweight structures, tissue engineering, drug delivery, robotics and energy storage, and (2) anti-biofouling for clean water and biomedical devices. Originally from China, he obtained B.S. degree from Fudan University in 2010. Thereafter, he owned Ph.D. degree from Duke University in 2014, and subsequently experienced one-year postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won MRS Graduate Student Award, ASME Best Student Paper Award, NSF-PACAM Fellowship, NIH-Duke Lew Pre-doctoral Fellowship and Kewaunee Student Achievement Award. His research was widely reported by Discovery, Washington Post, BBC Focus, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Physics Today, NSF News, Duke News, and MIT News. More information can be found at www-bcf.usc.edu/~qimingw.

Host: Stanley Yamashiro, PhD

Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Mischalgrace Diasanta