Buddy Ratner

Medical devices and implants are engineered from specially designed materials, often referred to as biomaterials. Millions of devices and implants are used clinically in applications as diverse as blood vessel replacements, catheters, contact lenses, hip joints, ventricular assist devices and artificial kidneys. The biocompatibility of these prostheses is dictated by their surface properties and by the local mechanical environment they induce. In my research program, biomaterials are engineered to control biological interactions, synthesized, characterized and observed during interaction with biological systems.