Project Team
Students
Carolyn Albert
Mechanical Engineering
Penn State Harrisburg
Faculty Mentors
Dr. Ola Rashwan
Penn State Harrisburg
Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Victor Ruiz-Velasco
Penn State College of Medicine
Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
Project
Project Video
Project Abstract
PEEK is a common high-performance engineering thermoplastic polymer with mechanical properties similar to human bones; it has high corrosion and wear resistance. It has many applications in biomedical, automotive, and aerospace fields. PEEK material does not have intrinsic antimicrobial characteristics; therefore, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been added as antimicrobial agents. The purpose of this project is to assess whether exposure of cells to antimicrobial PEEK/AgNPs leads to cell death. To this end, we employed the U-251 cell line that constitutively expresses the jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP). U-251 cells are astrocytes, which is a cell type found in the central nervous system (CNS). Using U-251-GFP cells and seeding 200,000 cells onto PEEK/AgNPs composite discs over 2 days, the cell growth profile of the U-251-GFP cells were recorded. It is anticipated that the U-251-GFP cells adhere and survive on the surface of the compounded /AgNPs discs. These results will affect whether PEEK/AgNPs compounds could be safely used in biodevices over long periods.
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