Roberto Portillo Lara

Imperial College London | Imperial · Department of Bioengineering

Background Delivery of hydrogels to the heart is a promising strategy for mitigating the detrimental impact of myocardial infarction ( MI ). Challenges associated with the in vivo delivery of currently available hydrogels have limited clinical translation of this technology. Gelatin methacryloyl (Gel MA ) bioadhesive hydrogel could address many of...

Orthopedic surgical procedures based on the use of conventional biological graft tissues are often associated with serious post‐operative complications such as immune rejection, bacterial infection, and poor osseointegration. Bioresorbable bone graft substitutes have emerged as attractive alternatives to conventional strategies because they can mim...

Dental implants constitute the standard of care to replace the missing teeth, which has led to an increase in the number of patients affected by peri-implant diseases (PIDs). Here, we report the development of an antimicrobial bioadhesive, GelAMP, for the treatment of PIDs. The hydrogel is based on a visible light-activated naturally-derived polyme...

Chronic wounds are characterized by impaired healing and uncontrolled inflammation, which compromise the protective role of the immune system and may lead to bacterial infection. Upregulation of miR‐223 microRNAs (miRNAs) shows driving of the polarization of macrophages toward the anti‐inflammatory (M2) phenotype, which could aid in the acceleratio...

Myocardial infarction (MI) leads to a multi-phase reparative process at the site of damaged heart that ultimately results in the formation of non-conductive fibrous scar tissue. Despite the widespread use of electroconductive biomaterials to increase the physiological relevance of bioengineered cardiac tissues in vitro, there are still several limi...

Electroconductive hydrogels (ECHs) are highly hydrated three-dimensional (3D) networks generated through the incorporation of conductive polymers, nanoparticles, and other conductive materials into polymeric hydrogels. ECHs combine several advantageous properties of inherently conductive materials with the highly tunable physical and biochemical pr...

The design of new hydrogel-based biomaterials with tunable mechanical and biological properties is essential for the advancement of applications related to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. For instance, interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) and semi-IPN hydrogels have been widely explored to engineer functional tissues due to their ch...

Bioengineered tissues have become increasingly more sophisticated owing to recent advancements in the fields of biomaterials, microfabrication, microfluidics, genetic engineering, and stem cell and developmental biology. In the coming years, the ability to engineer artificial constructs that accurately mimic the compositional, architectural, and fu...

Suturing peripheral nerve transections is the predominant therapeutic strategy for nerve repair. However, the use of sutures lead to scar tissue formation, hinder nerve regeneration, and prevent functional recovery. Fibrin-based adhesives have been widely used for nerve reconstruction, but their limited adhesive and mechanical strength, and inabili...

Conventional methods to engineer electroconductive hydrogels (ECHs) through the incorporation of conductive nanomaterials and polymers exhibit major technical limitations. These are mainly associated with the cytotoxicity, as well as poor solubility, processability, and biodegradability of their components. Here, we describe the engineering of a ne...

The biofunctional significance of hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs) could be used as nano-reservoirs. Here in the β-sitosterol loaded into the hollow core and the cisplatin substituted with the carboxylic group of poly lactic acid (PLA)- polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the pore walls of HMSNs. Subsequently, the tumour biomarker somatostat...

Photocrosslinkable materials have been frequently used for constructing soft and biomimetic hydrogels for tissue engineering. Although, ultraviolet (UV) light is commonly used for photocrosslinking such materials, its use has been associated with several biosafety concerns such as DNA damage, accelerated aging of tissues, and cancer. Here we report...

Hydrogel-based bioadhesives have emerged as alternatives for sutureless wound closure, since they can mimic the composition and physicochemical properties of the extracellular matrix. However, they are often associated with poor mechanical properties, low adhesion to native tissues, and lack antimicrobial properties. Herein, a new sprayable, elasti...

Biomimetics refers to the design and engineering of artificial materials, structures, and systems that emulate those naturally occurring in biological entities. In recent years, interdisciplinary approaches based on biomimicry, materials sciences, and tissue engineering have enabled the development of biomimetic materials with defined chemical comp...

More than 90% of cancer-related deaths can be attributed to the occurrence of metastatic diseases. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of the multicellular, biochemical and biophysical stimuli from the tumor microenvironment during carcinogenesis, treatment failure, and metastasis. Therefore, there is a need for experimental platforms th...

Cancer stem cells (CSC) drive prostate cancer tumor survival and metastasis. Nevertheless, the development of specific therapies against CSCs is hindered by the scarcity of these cells in prostate tissues. Suspension culture systems have been reported to enrich CSCs in primary cultures and cell lines. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying th...

Background: Foams are high porosity and low density materials. In nature, they are a common architecture. Some of their relevant technological applications include heat and sound insulation, lightweight materials, and tissue engineering scaffolds. Foams derived from natural polymers are particularly attractive for tissue culture due to their biode...

Mini-bioreactors have diverse applications in the field of biotechnology: screening of culture conditions, kinetic characterization of clones, and fundamental research in cell biology, among others. In this contribution, we illustrate the use of continuous mini-bioreactors for the culture of mammalian and yeast cells. In particular, we explore expe...

According to the stem cell model of cancer progression, the disease emerges through mutations and epigenetic modifications that disrupt normal function in adult stem cells. These cancer stem cells (CSCs) constitute a very small subset of the tumor and are responsible for establishing and maintaining the disease. The identification of potential ther...

The A/H1N1/2009 influenza pandemic made evident the need for faster and higher-yield methods for the production of influenza vaccines. Platforms based on virus culture in mammalian or insect cells are currently under investigation. Alternatively, expression of fragments of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein in prokaryotic systems can potentially be the...

Schematic representation of an immunoassay used to validate the preferential biological affinity of the recombinant protein for antibodies present in serum of patients infected with influenza A H1N1/2009. (A) Anti-histidine antibodies were fixed to the surface of 96 well immunoassay microplates. (B) After blocking with a commercial agent, a solutio...

Although it has been estimated that pandemic Influenza A H1N1/2009 has infected millions of people from April to October 2009, a more precise figure requires a worldwide large-scale diagnosis of the presence of Influenza A/H1N1/2009 antibodies within the population. Assays typically used to estimate antibody titers (hemagglutination inhibition and...