Understanding the selective permeability of biological hydrogels

Biological hydrogels are fundamental to life, from microbial biofilms to mucus and the nuclear pore in humans. These hydrogels exhibit complex selective permeability behavior, allowing the passage of some particles while blocking the penetration of others. This selective permeability is critical for understanding the biological and medicinal impact of mucus, which coats all non-keratinized epithelia in the body. Mucus controls the penetration of microbes, pollutants, and nanoparticles through a combination of steric and interactive (binding-based) constraints. For small molecules, binding to mucus and in particular mucin, the main gel-forming component of mucus, affects diffusive permeability and may also affect a molecule's biological or therapeutic activity. However, the molecular characteristics leading to mucus binding are not well understood.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computational and Systems Biology Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Witten, Jacob Julian Seid.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Katharina Ribbeck.

• Computational and Systems Biology Program.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122723

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122723