Effects of immobilizing sites of RGD peptides in amphiphilic block copolymers on the ligand efficacy to promote cell adhesion on RGD-modified hydrogels

Immobilizing RGD peptides has been a popular approach of biomaterial modification. Nevertheless, the relationship between immobilizing sites in the amphiphilic polymers and the actual efficacy to promote cell adhesion remains as an open fundamental question. A manuscript accepted by Biomaterials and first-authored by a Ph. D student Mr. Zhang focuses on the examination of the question addressed above. A key of realizing the above examination is to achieve in-parallel immobilization of RGD peptides in either hydrophilic blocks or hydrophobic blocks.