Seonki Hong

Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology | DGIST · Department of Emerging Materials Science

Biocompatible energy-harvesting platforms can significantly promote the development of self-powered devices to improve the human lifestyle. However, the low power of these devices is a bottleneck and requires an alternative power source. Herein, we have developed calcium titanate (CTO) perovskite-based polymeric composite (polyvinylidene fluoride (...

Plant-derived polyphenols have emerged as molecular building blocks for biomedical architectures. However, the isolation of polyphenols from other components requires labor-intensive procedures, which increases costs and often raises environmental concerns. Here, we suggest that decaffeination can be a convenient and cost-effective method for enhan...

Here, we report a novel strategy for rapid and convenient biomarker detection through the naked eye by temporally controlling nature-inspired quinone tanning in a biomarker-specific manner. Quinone tanning is one of the smartest strategies for crosslinking biopolymers chosen by living organisms because of its high efficiency under ambient condition...

Co-crystallization of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) with pharmaceutically acceptable additives has emerged as an alternative to current drug delivery systems for hydrophobic drugs, due to their high drug loading efficiency. During this process, we herein report that tannic acid (TA) can be used as an amphiphilic stabilizer for the model...

Background: Nucleic acid (NA)-based diagnostics enable a rapid response to various diseases, but current techniques often require multiple labor-intensive steps, which is a major obstacle to successful translation to a clinical setting. Methods: We report on a surface-engineered single-chamber device for NA extraction and in situ amplification with...

Plant-derived polyphenols are multifunctional phenol-rich natural compounds that exhibit antioxidant, anticancer, and antimicrobial activities. They are rapidly nanoformulated with a variety of biomacromolecules and therapeutics via multivalent hydrogen bonding, π–π stacking, and metal chelation, resulting multifunctional colloidal nanoparticles an...

Polydopamine coating is known to be performed in a material-independent manner and has become a popular tool when designing a surface functionalization strategy of a given material. Studies to improve polydopamine coatings have been reported, aiming to reduce the coating time (by transition metals, oxidants, applied voltages or microwave irradiatio...

Colorants have been utilized for precise biomarker detection in rapid and convenient colorimetric bioassays. However, the diffusion of colorants in solution often results in poor sensitivity, which is a major obstacle to the clinical translation of current colorants. To address this issue, in the current study, a unique colorant is developed that p...

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is a powerful platform for detecting biomolecules including proteins, nucleotides, and vesicles. Here, we report a colloidal gold (Au) nanoparticle-based assay that enhances the LSPR signal of nanoimprinted Au strips. The binding of the colloidal Au nanoparticle on the Au strip causes a red-shift of the LS...

Phenolamine networks are one of the major structural components in the insect exoskeletons called cuticles. Insect cuticle-inspired surface protective coating named “aerobic oxidation of polyphenol leading to artificial exoskeleton”, APPLE, is reported. The coating layer can be formed on any solid surfaces because the oxygen in the air triggers the...

Background: Melanins are a group of biopigments in microorganisms that generate a wide range of colorants. Due to their multifunctionality, including ultraviolet protection, radical scavenging, and photothermal conversion, in addition to their intrinsic biocompatibility, natural melanins and synthetic melanin-like nanomaterials have been suggested...

Most deaths (80%) from cervical cancer occur in regions lacking adequate screening infrastructures or ready access to them. In contrast, most developed countries now embrace human papillomavirus (HPV) analyses as standalone screening; this transition threatens to further widen the resource gap. Methods: We describe the development of a DNA-focused...

Various methods have been developed in surface chemistry to control interface properties of a solid material. A selection rule among surface chemistries is compatibility between a surface functionalization tool and a target material. For example, alkanethiol deposition on noble metal surfaces, widely known as the formation of a self-assembled monol...

The identification of patients with aggressive cancer who require immediate therapy is a health challenge in low- and middle-income countries. Limited pathology resources, high healthcare costs and large caseloads call for the development of advanced stand-alone diagnostics. Here, we report and validate an automated, low-cost point-of-care device f...

Biological functions depend on biomolecular assembly processes. Assemblies of lipid bilayers, actins, microtubules, or chromosomes are indispensable for cellular functions. These hierarchical assembly processes are reasonably predictable by understanding chemical structures of the defined building blocks and their interactions. However, biopigment...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, are nanoscale membrane particles shed from cells and contain cellular proteins whose makeup could inform cancer diagnosis and treatment. Most analyses have focused on surface proteins while analysis of intravesicular proteins has been more challenging. Herein, we report an EV screening assay for bot...

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...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is usually detected late in the disease process. Clinical workup through imaging and tissue biopsies is often complex and expensive due to a paucity of reliable biomarkers. We used an advanced multiplexed plasmonic assay to analyze circulating tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tEVs) in more than 100 clini...

We herein report a biomimetic technique to modify plastic substrates for bioassays. The method first places a polydopamine adhesion layer to plastic surface, and then grows conformal silica coating. As proof of principle, we coated plastic microbeads to construct a disposable filter for point-of-care nucleic acid extraction.

A novel metallo-bioadhesive to be used as tissue sealant in minimally invasive procedures is reported. Metal complexation can be used to render gelatin derivatives adhesive, which occurs in minutes, is efficient, and fully biodegradable within weeks.

This video describes the simplest protocol for preparing biodegradable surgical glue that has an effective hemostatic ability and greater water-resistant adhesion strength than commercial tissue adhesives. Medical adhesives have attracted great attention as potential alternative tools to sutures and staples due to their convenience in usage with mi...

Significant acceleration in the speed of polydopamine coating is achieved by optimizing various physicochemical conditions. Using these conditions, sufficient amounts of polydopamine layers are deposited onto various surfaces within a minute. Moreover, the coating process is improved by combining it with a spray system, which allows the system to b...

A novel dual marking hydrogel system is reported for radiological and laparoscopic localization of lesions. Bioorthogonally crosslinked hydrogel containing both tantalum and India ink can be rapidly formed inside the body after injecting precursors, and stably located for several days as a long-term biocompatible carrier for markers.

The development of adhesive materials, such as cyanoacrylate derivatives, fibrin glues, and gelatin-based adhesives, has been an emerging topic in biomaterial science because of the many uses of these materials, including in wound healing patches, tissue sealants, and hemostatic materials. However, most bio-adhesives exhibit poor adhesion to tissue...

Adhesives play an important role in industrial fields such as electronics, architectures, energy plantation, and others. However, adhesives used for medical purpose are rather under-developed compared with those used in industry and consumer products. One key property required for medical adhesives is to maintain their adhesiveness in the presence...

S. N. Gorb, H. Lee, and co-workers show on page 7581 the first report on an adhesive catecholamine film that is spontaneously formed at the air/water interface only by the catalytic role of oxygen in air, and its unexplored interfacial properties are examined. The film exhibits a multi-functionality of strong adhesion, self-healing, and stimuli-res...

Polymer gold nanoshells (PGNs) are prepared by a novel plant-inspired flavonoid surface modification method. The PGNs show a dramatic photothermal property, which can facilitate the endosomal escape and delivery of siRNA into the cytoplasm of cells. Efficient gene silencing has been achieved with siRNA immobilized PGNs, suggesting the potential app...

Quinone tanning is a well-characterized biochemical process found in invertebrates, which produce diverse materials from extremely hard tissues to soft water-resistant adhesives. Herein, we report new types of catecholamine PEG derivatives, PEG-NH-catechols that can utilize an expanded spectrum of catecholamine chemistry. The PEGs enable simultaneo...

A plant-inspired, amine-containing small phenol molecule, 5-pyrogallol 2-aminoethane (PAE), can perform surface functionalization in a material-independent manner. The co-existence of primary amine and pyrogallol moieties are essential for the material-independent coating ability of PAE. The multi-functionality of the PAE-mediated surface chemistry...

Due to a combination of multiple advantages including low cost, abundance of raw material, high rate capability, and a plethora of work historically (~30 yrs), the manganese spinel cathode is still one of the most promising cathode materials for emerging large-scale lithium battery applications such as electrical vehicles and smart grid systems. De...

Controlled release of biosuprastructures, such as viruses, from surfaces has been a challenging task in providing efficient ex vivo gene delivery. Conventional controlled viral release approaches have demonstrated low viral immobilization and burst release, inhibiting delivery efficiency. Here, a highly powerful substrate-mediated viral delivery sy...

Mussels have a unique ability of adhesion. They adhere to wet surfaces that synthetic glues do not adhere. This unique feature of mussels has led scientists and engineers to explore the mechanism of mussel adhesion and the mussel-inspired adhesive biomaterials. Since the finding of catecholamine moieties that are responsible for the robust adhesion...

We report an alginate, extracted from brown seaweed as a polymeric binder for spinel LiMn2O4. The exceptional Mn2+ capture of the alginate extracted from brown seaweed resolves the chronic issue of a promising lithium battery cathode, LiMn2O4, upholding the feasibility of its use for emerging large-scale applications including electric vehicles.

Capture and release: The material-independent surface chemistry of a poly(norepinephrine) (pNE) which exhibits perfect smoothness at the nanometer scale is controlled by 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde-norepinephrine (DHBA-NE) conjugates. The pNE layer containing DHBA-NE serves to store and release small therapeutics such as nitric oxide.

Nature has developed materials that are integrated and effective at controlling their properties of adhesiveness and cohesiveness; the chemistry of these materials has been optimized during evolution. For example, a catechol moiety found in the adhesive proteins of marine mussels regulates its properties between adhesion and cohesion, rapidly adapt...

Mussels provide a clever idea for lithium battery technology! Jang Wook Choi, Haeshin Lee, and co-workers were inspired by the unusual wet-adhesion capability of mussels. On page 1571, the researchers conjugate mussel-inspired catechol groups to various polymer backbones and use them as binders for silicon lithium battery anodes. The mussel-inspire...

Polydopamine is the first adhesive polymer that can functionalize surfaces made of virtually all material chemistries. The material-independent surface modification properties of polydopamine allow the functionalization of various types of medical and energy devices. However, the mechanism of dopamine polymerization has not yet been clearly demonst...

A bio-inspired approach for detoxification of water has been investigated. In this approach, three major classes of toxic agents, heavy-metal ions (Cr, Hg, Pb, Cu, and Cd), toxic organic species (4-aminopyridine), and a radioisotope (Lutetium-177) were effectively removed from contaminated water by polydopamine, a mussel-inspired adhesive catechola...

Mussel-inspired block copolymer lithography is reported on page 5618 by Haeshin Lee, Sang Ouk Kim, and co-workers. Mussel-inspired poly-dopamine coating enables the organic surface energy modification of low surface energy materials, such as Teflon, graphene, and gold, which is required for block copolymer lithography. Further pattern transfer gene...

A strategy for the on-surface synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on a variety of two- to three-dimensional material surfaces, utilizing polydopamine, an emerging surface modifying agent, is reported in this paper. This material-independent platform for AgNP synthesis is useful for fabricating organic/inorganic hybrid nanomaterials and for pr...

This study proposes a new combination method of using 6-arm-PEG-catechol to enhance the PEG effect on one hand and another combination of using low doses of Tacrolimus (FK506) and anti-CD154 mAb (MR1) with PEGylation for effective immunoprotection on the other in a xenogenic islet transplantation model. The surface coverage of PEG, viability and fu...

This paper reports the construction of a novel multi-sensitive chemically crosslinked injectable hydrogel with strong mechanical strength by modifying Pluronic F127 responsive against temperature, pH and redox potential. Crosslinked polymer between benzaldehyde grafted Pluronic (P-A) and amine end capped Pluronic having disulfide linkage (P-B) have...

Polydopamine coating is emerging as a useful method of surface functionalization due to the ability of this compound to form a nanometer-scale organic thin film on virtually any material surface to which proteins, peptides, oligonucleotides, metal ions or synthetic polymers are able to be attached. The unique properties of polydopamine make this te...

Super-strong carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers are fabricated by infiltration of the mussel-inspired underwater adhesives, poly(ethylenimine)-catechols (PEI-Cs). PEI-C mimics the amino acid sequence of mussel adhesive proteins in which catechols from 3,4-dihydroxyl-L-phenylalanine and amines from lysine are found. Weak interactions between CNTs are over...

We present a versatile route for promoting cell adhesion and viability on various non-wetting surfaces, inspired by mussel adhesion mechanism. The oxidative polymerization of dopamine, a small designer molecule of the DOPA-K motif found in mussels, results in the formation of a poly(dopamine) ad-layer on any material surface. We found that the poly...