Center research in the area of biomedical engineering currently targets the study of endothelial cells that line the arteries. During the development of arterial disease, these endothelial cells become dysfunctional. The goal of center research is to engineer cell behavior in order to restore artery wall function and, alternatively, to design artificial bypass grafts. The bypass grafting process requires an understanding of how cells sense and react to their environment. We are currently developing approaches for nanopatterning proteins that control cell adhesion, in order to further the understanding of surface interactions and their role in cell structure and function.

Our existing MRSEC has expolred the breadth of applicability of our templated growth techniques, motivating a collaboration between James Groves of UVa and Igor Lyubinetsky and Don Baer of Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL) in the investigation of templated growth of metal oxide quantum dots. The UVa-PNNL work has synthesized Cu2O quantum dots (QDs) on SrTi O3 (STO) substrates, employing a high vacuum oxygen plasma-assisted molecular beam expitaxy system at PNNL for QD growth on surfaces patterned using UVa's focused ion beam facility. Atomic force microscopy of the STO substrates before Cu2O deposition reveals that FIB-induced topography evolves into square-sided pits during pre-growth substrate preparation (wet etch and anneal). Subsequent Cu2O deposition generates a regular array of QDs. Our goal is to demonstrate that these structures are sufficiently robust to be considered in application arenas ranging from photocatalysis to bio-nantechnology to magnetic storage.