{"id":136,"date":"2016-08-29T18:47:26","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T18:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bme.ufl.edu\/labs\/hudalla\/?page_id=136"},"modified":"2026-04-02T13:23:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:23:02","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-cover\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"407\" height=\"344\" class=\"wp-block-cover__image-background wp-image-163\" alt=\"Representative image of CATCH peptide system\" src=\"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/501\/2016\/08\/Picture3-e1472505194110.jpg\" style=\"object-position:48% 22%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/501\/2016\/08\/Picture3-e1472505194110.jpg 407w, https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/501\/2016\/08\/Picture3-e1472505194110-300x254.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px\" \/><span aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-cover__background has-background-dim\"><\/span><div class=\"wp-block-cover__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-cover-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Biomaterials and Biotherapeutics<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading alignwide\" id=\"we-re-a-studio-in-berlin-with-an-international-practice-in-architecture-urban-planning-and-interior-design-we-believe-in-sharing-knowledge-and-promoting-dialogue-to-increase-the-creative-potential-of-collaboration\" style=\"font-size:25px;line-height:1.1\"><br>Functional nano-scale materials are receiving increasing attention for a broad array of biomedical and biotechnological applications, including immunotherapy, personalized medicines, regenerative medicine, and disease prophylaxis. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"we-re-a-studio-in-berlin-with-an-international-practice-in-architecture-urban-planning-and-interior-design-we-believe-in-sharing-knowledge-and-promoting-dialogue-to-increase-the-creative-potential-of-collaboration\">Throughout living systems, self-assembly of different biomolecules into multi-component assemblies gives rise to functional nano-scale materials that can perform complex tasks with unprecedented efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"we-re-a-studio-in-berlin-with-an-international-practice-in-architecture-urban-planning-and-interior-design-we-believe-in-sharing-knowledge-and-promoting-dialogue-to-increase-the-creative-potential-of-collaboration\"> Inspired by these observations, our research establishes strategies to create <strong>nanomaterials<\/strong> with precisely defined and easily interchangeable compositions of functional components using self-assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"we-re-a-studio-in-berlin-with-an-international-practice-in-architecture-urban-planning-and-interior-design-we-believe-in-sharing-knowledge-and-promoting-dialogue-to-increase-the-creative-potential-of-collaboration\">In one application, we have developed <strong>recombinant fusion \u201cassembly tags\u201d<\/strong> to install biologically active protein domains into peptide nanofibers that form injectable gels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"we-re-a-studio-in-berlin-with-an-international-practice-in-architecture-urban-planning-and-interior-design-we-believe-in-sharing-knowledge-and-promoting-dialogue-to-increase-the-creative-potential-of-collaboration\">In a second application, we have developed a strategy to create <strong>nanofibers with a tailored composition<\/strong> of carbohydrates as the basis for synthetic mimics of extracellular matrix glycoproteins. The utility of this technology is illustrated by creating nanofibers that can modulate the activity of galectins, a family of carbohydrate-binding extracellular signaling proteins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"we-re-a-studio-in-berlin-with-an-international-practice-in-architecture-urban-planning-and-interior-design-we-believe-in-sharing-knowledge-and-promoting-dialogue-to-increase-the-creative-potential-of-collaboration\">Additionally, we develop strategies to <span class=\"ll-highlight-and-annotate\" data-created-at=\"1775148434624\"><\/span><span class=\"ll-highlight-and-annotate\" data-created-at=\"1775148433758\" data-floating-ui-inert=\"\"><\/span><strong data-floating-ui-inert=\"\"><span class=\"ll-highlight-and-annotate\" data-created-at=\"1775148433758\">anchor biotherapeutics<\/span><\/strong>, such as enzymes, to specific tissue locations by engineering them to bind to abundant tissue carbohydrates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n  Finally, we utilize a nature-derived material,\n  <span class=\"hover-word\">\n    sweetcorn\n    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/501\/2026\/04\/Corn.png\" alt=\"Smiling Sweetcorn Icon\" class=\"hover-image\">\n  <\/span>\n  <strong>phytoglycogen, to stabilize protein therapeutics<\/strong>\n  \u2014 such as enzymes and monoclonal antibodies \u2014 during dehydration.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"we-re-a-studio-in-berlin-with-an-international-practice-in-architecture-urban-planning-and-interior-design-we-believe-in-sharing-knowledge-and-promoting-dialogue-to-increase-the-creative-potential-of-collaboration\">Together, these approaches demonstrate the potential of harnessing biomaterials with multi-functional properties that can be easily and precisely tailored according to application- or disease-specific needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Functional nano-scale materials are receiving increasing attention for a broad array of biomedical and biotechnological applications, including immunotherapy, personalized medicines, regenerative medicine, and disease prophylaxis. Throughout living systems, self-assembly of different biomolecules into multi-component assemblies gives rise to functional nano-scale materials that can perform complex tasks with unprecedented efficiency. Inspired by these observations, our research [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":468,"featured_media":163,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-sidebar-none.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-136","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136\/revisions\/2071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.eng.ufl.edu\/hudalla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}