Complex tissue-inspired materials based on supramolecular polymers: from drug delivery to regenerative medicine

Guest Speaker： Professor. Patricia Y.W. Dankers，Eindhoven University of Technology，The Netherlands

Inviter: Prof. Chuanliang Feng

Date&Time: Thursday, 23rd Oct.  15:00-16:30

Venue: Yiucheng Lecture Hall (500), Xu Zuayo Building

Biography:

Patricia Y.W. Dankers PhD, is professor in Biomedical Materials & Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). She studied chemistry in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Her PhD studies were performed at TU/e, on supramolecular chemistry and biomaterials (2006). She worked for SupraPolix, and the University Medical Center, Groningen. Her second PhD thesis work was performed in medical sciences on kidney regenerative medicine, in Groningen (2013). She worked at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA (2010). She received Veni, Vidi, Vici (2008, 2017, 2023) and ERC starting, ERC PoC (2012, 2017) grants. She was awarded the KNCV Gold Medal (2020), and the KNAW Ammodo Award for fundamental research (2021). She is a co-founder of the spin-off companies UPyTher (2020; advisor) and VivArt-X (2022; CSO); and the start-up company Helmond Biotech-materials Hub (HBH; 2023; MT). She is the CEO of a CRO and synthesis company, SyMO-Chem. Recently, she was elected to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences (2025; KNAW).

Abstract:

The integration of synthetic components into biological systems will shape the future of regenerative medicine and drug delivery. In nature, tissues and cells are formed by complex, intricated molecular compositions held together by both covalent and directed non-covalent interactions. They can be regarded as complex molecular systems. The formulation of an artificial extracellular matrix from synthetic building blocks that can assemble and disassemble into supramolecular polymers on demand is proposed to lead to complex tissue-inspired materials. Making use of supramolecular monomers, but also microfluidic processing techniques different time and length scales are being addressed. We aim to apply these supramolecular materials for various applications, from drug delivery to regenerative medicine.