Faculty Directory

Awarded the McQueen-Quattlebaum Endowed Professorship of Engineering,
Clemson University, May 2008
Co-Editor, Biointerphases Journal
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research: Part B - Applied Biomaterials 
Core Faculty, RESBIO, Rutgers University
MOSES Award for outstanding service in test standards development, F04 Medical Devices Committee,
American Society for Testing and Materials, May 1997
Faculty Award Nomination for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, 2004
Student Research Award:  Conference Best Student Paper, Zhang G. and Latour R.A.(advisor), FRP
Composite Compressive Strength and Its Dependence Upon InterfacialBond Strength, Fiber
Misalignment, & Matrix Nonlinearity, American Society for Composites, 8th Technical Conference,
Cleveland, OH, 1993.
Student Research Award:  2nd Place, Poster Competition, Vernekar V. and Latour R.A. (advisor),
Determination of Adsorption Thermodynamics for Lysine Residues onFunctionalized SAMs Using
Surface Plasmon Resonance, American Vacuum Society, 48th International Symposium: Biomaterials Interfaces Session, San Francisco, CA, October 28-November 2, 2001.
Student Research Award, Cardiovascular Special Interest Group, Hylton D.M. and ShalabyS.W.
(co-advisor) and Latour R.A. (advisor), Direct Correlation Between the Change in Adsorbed Protein
Structure and Platelet Adhesion, Society For Biomaterials, 29th Annual Meeting, 2003.

When a biomaterial is placed in the body, proteins (which are bioactive molecules) rapidly adsorb to the implant surface. Cells that then come in contact with the implanted biomaterial thus directly interact with the adsorbed protein layer rather than the actual surface of the implant. Accordingly, protein adsorption represents one of the most fundamental controlling factors of implant biocompatibility. Although the importance of protein adsorption is widely acknowledged, the actual molecular-level events involved, and how to control them, are still not well understood, and implant surface design is thus largely relegated to trial-and-error approaches. Molecular simulation provides a relatively new and extremely valuable theoretical tool to investigate these types of interactions with the potential to revolutionize biomaterials surface design. Existing methods, however, have been developed for much different applications and must be adapted to address the problem of protein adsorption to biomaterials surfaces. In response to this need, we are developing empirical force-field-based molecular simulation methods that will enable us to accurately simulate protein adsorption behavior as a function of surface chemistry. Once developed, these methods will provide an excellent resource to complement experimental studies to guide the design of biomaterials surfaces to directly control protein adsorption and subsequent biological response for improved patient care.

Very little is currently understood regarding the specific molecular mechanisms that determine how proteins adsorb to biomaterial surfaces, and subsequently, how this influences cellular response and biocompatibility. We are therefore developing experimental methods using state-of-the-art techniques, including surface plasmon resonance (SPR) spectroscopy, variable wavelength spectroscopic ellipsometry, and circular dichroism (CD) spectropolarimetry, to elucidate the fundamental governing factors responsible for how peptides and proteins adsorb to materials surfaces as a function of surface chemistry and how the process of adsorption influences the bioactivity of the adsorbed proteins and subsequent cellular responses. These studies are planned synergistically with molecular simulation studies in order to generate the experimental data needed to guide and validate the developed molecular simulation methods, while also using the molecular simulation results to enhance our understanding of the molecular events underlying experimentally observed behavior.