Dr. Yujia Xu, Associate professor, Department of Chemistry, Hunter College, The City University of New York, USA

Speech Title: A Novel Collagen Mimetic Biomaterial

Abstract: Collagen based biomaterials are projected to be a 41 billion dollar industry by 2020, with a CAGR of 16% based on a recent Benzinga business analysis. Collagen-based materials have been used extensively in medicine, pharmaceuticals, personal care cosmetics, food industry and leather industry. Our research have led to a methodology to make protein-based, collagen-mimetic biomaterials that 1) have a molecular scaffold modeling that of the D-periodic fibrils of fibrillar collagens and 2) have tunable functions and adjustable sizes for desired applications. Our new development provides the capability to produce collagen-mimetic biomaterials that have the tensile strength and the molecular scaffolds comparable to that of native collagen fibrils. Such materials can serve as safer and cheaper alternatives to collagens extracted from animals or produced from expression systems.
(*Patent pending 16/030,197)