PhD defence of Laurianne Legay

Laurianne Legay defends her PhD in Computational Mechanics and Materials on March 26th, 2024.

Development of hyaluronic acid-based materials

Laurianne Legay conducted her PhD work under the supervision of Tatiana Budtova and Sytze Buwalda. She will defend her work in front of the following jury:

• Mme Irina SMIRNOVA, Technische Universität of Hamburg, Rapporteur
• M. Jacques DESBRIERES, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Rapporteur
• M. Bernard CATHALA, INRAE NANTES GERAUDIERE, Examinateur
• Mme Tatiana BUDTOVA, Mines Paris – PSL, CEMEF, Examinateur
• M. Sijtze BUWALDA, Mines Paris – PSL, CEMEF, Examinateur

Abstract:

The project targets the development of new materials based on hyaluronic acid. This biocompatible and hydrophilic polysaccharide was used for the preparation of aerogels, which are dry, highly porous and ultra-light polymer networks. Several physical and chemical crosslinking methods were explored and processing-structure-properties relations were developed. Wound dressings are a potential application area for these novel materials, as the unique properties of aerogels potentially allow them to absorb a large amount of wound exudate, to facilitate O2 and CO2 exchange, to cover the wound and to act as a depot for active agents. In addition to the work on aerogels, it was found that mixing a solution of HA and a suspension of chitin nanofibers led to the formation of robust capsules via interactions between the oppositely charged biopolymers. The release kinetics of different model compounds from the capsules were investigated, which demonstrated their potential for drug delivery applications.

Keywords: hyaluronic acid, aerogels, capsules, wound dressings, biomedical applications