MultiSMART, Multi-component Soft Materials Advanced Research Training Network, is a Doctoral Network of six Universities, one private non-for-profit Research Institute, and two large companies. It involves training, fundamental research and development of applications in the field of molecular soft materials. It aims at tackling society's needs in very diverse areas: (1) the widespread and evolving areas of Personal Care, Cosmetics and Home Care (impacting billions of people); (2) delivery of bio-active molecules for medicinal applications; (3) high-end emerging applications of Tissue Engineering for Regenerative Medicine.To reach this, research on innovative soft materials, essential constituents of these products, needs to be coupled to so-far unavailable training of researchers in materials design and formulation technologies within a multidisciplinary and multisectoral consortium, developing and relating more tightly Research&Innovation, Industry and Training (E.U. Green Deal). A cohort of 11 doctoral candidates will be involved throughout the whole process, from design to application, providing them with a training to become the next generation of experts in the field.
Although it might sound surprising, the aforementioned applications rely partially on related scientific approaches, and might even have ‘ingredients’ in common. Our research is based on the use of small molecules or macromolecules that “transform” water into a more solid-like material, such as a gel. It is common to find gels in our daily life, as it makes many applications more efficient and practical: shampoos, gels for laundry or dishwashing, cosmetic creams, some food; all contain water and ingredients leading to gel-like behaviour. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to further reduce the environmental impact of such products used by billions of people all around the world: exploit natural resources to fabricate new ingredients; reduce water-consumption in their production, transport and use; improve efficiency, biodegradability and biocompatibility.
In medicine, gels are explored since they can be a vector to carry and deliver bio-active ingredients, or act as an environment in which living cells can thrive and develop before being delivered into living beings. For example, much like little drops of gels that are used in ‘molecular cuisine’ to carry and deliver a flavour in your mouth, tiny microdrops can be used in medicine to carry and release a medicine in your eye or in your blood-stream. Water-based gels are also well-documented media for the growth of living cells. However, living cells are very delicate to grow, and are very sensitive to the environment in which they are. To be able to use these cells for therapeutic applications, it is essential to develop new growth environments that allow cells to proliferate and be healthy outside of a living being. Only then, these cells can be injected into a living being to cure illnesses or traumatic injuries. Our project focuses on developing gels for the differentiation and growth of nerve cells, which are destined to be used, at a future stage, in human beings to regenerate damaged spinal cords and give back mobility to thousands of heavily incapacitated people. There is still a lot of work to do. Currently, the gelators studied are inspired from nature: much like proteins are constituted of a long chain of amino-acids, some of the gelators in our projects are constituted of small chains of amino-acids.
