People

Affiliated Faculty

Research Interests

Nanomechanics of Hydrated Biomaterials Implants, tissue engineering scaffold materials, drug delivery and bio-micro electromechanical systems (BioMEMs) all use polymer or hydrogel materials. These applications require both mechanical performance and successful integration of the material into a biological environment. Mechanical strength, storage and loss moduli, wear resistance, surface adhesion properties and surface chemical composition are all critical in biomedical device design and can be determined using nanoindentation. The difficulty of obtaining large samples of specialized materials and the complexity of testing soft materials in traditional materials testing apparatus, make nanoindentation an attractive alternative.

Gene Expression in Cells at the Cell-Biomaterial Interface Living cells are capable of performing complex functions and chemistries that are difficult or impossible to carry out by synthetic means. Thus, the integration of cells or cell components capable of performing these functions into a synthetic device environment is a major frontier in the design of microscale and nanoscale systems. A critical concern in this endeavor is that the cells retain their normal functions or can acquire additional desired functions, when incorporated into these devices. We are studying the molecular interactions of cells and inorganic materials to develop concepts for the fabrication of future cell/synthetic hybrid devices. Microarray technology (only widely accessible in the last 5 years) allows us to study several measures of the “health” and performance of cells living in a synthetic environment outside of the body. For example, by controlling the chemical (liquid) and material (solid) environment surrounding a cell, one can exert control over what products a cell will make. Some of these products can be subsequently secreted by the cell and harvested for other uses. Other environments could cause cell death. Understanding the molecular interactions between a cell and its non-living environment will allow us to more appropriately design the surfaces of materials for use in future hybrid devices.

Microfluidic Device Design Biological separations and diagnostic assays typically require the use of a wide araay of large and costly lab equipment. Our work is aimed at designing and manufacturing polymer based microfluidic devices that perform these processes using less raw material at a fraction of the cost. Working with colleagues in the Manufacturing Engineering Department at BU, we hope to integrate BioMEMs devices into polymer based microfluidic platforms in order to enhance their functionality.

Selected Recent Publications

Kaufman JD, Klapperich CM "Surface Detection Errors Cause Overestimation of the Modulus in Nanoindentation on Soft Materials” Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2008.08.004 (2008)

Klapperich CM, Noack CL, Kaufman JD, Zhu L, Bonnaillie, Wool RP "A Novel Biocompatible Adhesive Incorporating Plant-Derived Monomers” Journal of Biomedical Materials Research A DOI:10.1002/jbm.a.32250 (2008)

Kaufman JD, Miller G, Morgan EF, Klapperich CM "Time-Dependent Mechanical Characterization of Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) Hydrogels Using Nanoindentation and Unconfined Compression” Journal of Materials Research 23 (5) 1472-1481 (2008)

Spencer NJ, Cotanche D, and Klapperich CM "Peptide and Collagen Based Hydrogel Substrates for In Vitro Culture of Chick Cochleae” Biomaterials Vol. 29 (8) 1028-1042 (2008)

Bhattacharyya A, Klapperich CM "Microfluidics-Based Extraction of Viral RNA for Disposable Molecular Diagnostics" Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 129: 693–698 (2008)

Bhattacharyya A, Klapperich CM "Mechanical and Chemical Analysis of Plasma and Ultraviolet–Ozone Surface Treatments for Thermal Bonding of Polymeric Microfluidic Devices” Lab Chip 7 (7) (2007)

Bhattacharyya A, Klapperich CM "Design and Testing of a Disposable Microfluidic Chemiluminescent Immunoassay for Disease Biomarkers in Human Serum Samples” Biomedical Microdevices 9: 245-251 (2007)

Bhattacharyya A, Klapperich CM "Thermoplastic Microfluidic Device for On-Chip Purification of Nucleic Acids for Disposable Diagnostics" Anal. Chem. (2005)

Klapperich CM, Bertozzi CR "Global Gene Expression of Cells Attached to a Tissue Engineering Scaffold" Biomaterials Vol. 25, Issue 25: 5631-5641 (2004)

Song J, Chen J, Klapperich CM, Eng V, Bertozzi CR "Functional Glass Slides for In Vitro Evaluation of Interactions Between Bone Cells and Mineral-Binding Ligands" Journal of Materials Chemistry 14: 2643-2648 (2004)

Kaufman JD, Klapperich CM "Nanomechanical Testing of Hydrated Biomaterials: Sample Preparation, Data Validation and Analysis" Fundamentals of Nanoindentation and Nanotribology III, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings Vol. 841 (2004)

Kauth H, Klapperich CM "Examination of the Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds" Mechanical Properties of Bio-Inspired and Biological Materials, Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings Vol. 844 (2004)

C.M. Klapperich, K. Komvopoulos, L. Pruitt "Nanooindentation Experiments to Probe the Surface Mechanical Properties of Plasma Treated Polyethylenes" Journal of Materials Research 01.17 (2) (2002)