Tech Session III: Nanomedicine and Nanoscale Delivery (Bioengineering)
Programmably Degradable Oxanorbornadiene Hydrogels for Functional Biomolecular Release
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
11:05 AM – 11:16 AM EDT
Introduction: While injectable hydrogels are extensively used as depots for extended release, adjusting cargo release profiles remains challenging. Most hydrogels suffer from uncontrolled burst release and non-tunable pharmacokinetics. Our approach leverages oxanorbornadiene (OND) linkages, which react with thiol nucleophiles to trigger bond cleavage via retro-Diels-Alder fragmentation with tunable half-lives. This enables the creation of injectable hydrogels with programmable degradation, offering precise control over the release of biomolecules, including nanoparticulate vaccines and functional proteins.
Learning Objectives:
At the completion of this activity, participants will know
Understand the role of OND linkages in creating programmably degradable hydrogels.
Learn methods for optimizing hydrogel network topology to achieve controlled biomolecule release.
Evaluate the potential of OND-based hydrogels for long-acting immunization applications.
