%0 PDF %T Examination of Tunable Structures of Biopolymeric-synthetic Hybrid Hydrogel Microspheres Composed of Chitosan and Poly(ethylene glycol) %A Tang, Yi. %8 2017-04-19 %R http://localhost/files/n296xb10h %X Abstract: Controlled manufacturing of functional hydrogel microspheres with tunable mesh structures is important for many applications including biosensing, medical diagnostics and high throughput bioassays. I examined the effects of polymerizable monomer contents and inert porogens for tunable mesh sizes and polymeric network structures of functional hydrogel microspheres in this thesis. Specifically, simple micromolding fabrication scheme was utilized to manufacture uniform microspheres containing a potent aminopolysaccharide chitosan in poly(ethylene glycol) matrix. Simple fluorescent labeling and protein conjugation reactions using a rapid and bioorthogonal Tetrazine-trans-cyclooctene (Tz-TCO) cyclization reaction and a bright red fluorescent protein R-phycoerythrin (R-PE) showed tunable mesh sizes and 3D structures. Further swelling ratio and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies also supported the tunable fabrication of the hybrid microspheres. I expect that the findings shown in this thesis could be useful in programmable manufacturing of functional microparticles for a large range of applications.; At the request of the author, this graduate work is not available to view in the Tufts Digital Library until June 24, 2018.; Thesis (M.S.)--Tufts University, 2016.; Submitted to the Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering.; Advisor: Hyunmin Yi.; Committee: Hyunmin Yi, Ayse Asatekin, and Qiaobing Xu.; Keywords: Chemical engineering, and Biomedical engineering. %[ 2022-10-12 %9 Text %~ Tufts Digital Library %W Institution