Abstract: Surface biofouling poses significant challenges in the healthcare system. These complications can greatly impact the performance of devices such as medical implants and can lead to life-threatening systemic infections or embolisms. Moreover, medical interventions aimed at mitigating these complications can introduce problems such as excessive bleeding from anticoagulants or the emergence of antimicrobial resistance from antibiotics, a worldwide public health crisis. Given these challenges, there is an urgent need to develop new biomaterials and surface coatings with superior antifouling properties that also maintain verified biocompatibility under realistic biological conditions. In this talk, I will share insights from our research, highlighting our work in developing novel combinations of synthetic and natural biomaterials, fabrication methods, and surface coating and modification techniques with the aim to design the next generation of multifunctional biointerfaces that prevent non-specific adhesion and biofouling, promote desired biointeractions, and ultimately guarantee the system’s reliability and performance.
Bio: Dr. Badv is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at the University of Calgary. She has contributed significantly to the field of biomaterial science and engineering, especially in antifouling biointerface design, development, and testing. After earning her PhD from McMaster University and being honored as the Valedictorian of the 2019 graduating class, Dr. Badv furthered her research at UCLA as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow. During her training, she collaborated with an interdisciplinary team of nanoscientists, engineers, clinicians, and industry professionals to develop multifunctional tissue-engineered scaffolds for biomedical applications. The Badv Lab (Translational Biomedical Engineering Laboratory) focuses on translational biomedical engineering research, working at the interface of engineering, medicine, chemistry and biomedical sciences with the aim to develop multifunctional biomaterials and biomimetic models for various biomedical applications. Throughout her academic journey, Dr. Badv has authored numerous high-impact journal articles, with some of her innovative work leading to patents.