Development of novel biomaterials and investigation of their opportunities to use in medical area

Studies on rapidly developing tissue engineering field are increasing. Tissue scaffolds and three-dimensional cell culture concepts, which constitute the first step of the organs to be developed outside of the future, draw attention to the importance of biomaterials in this area. One of the biomaterials developed with the molecular affinity approach for use in this field is molecularly imprinted polymer technology. In this doctoral thesis, hybrid affinity systems obtained by developing and imprinting molecularly imprinted nanopolymers into biodegradable proteinaceous cryogel systems have been proposed for use in three-dimensional cell culture and tissue engineering applications. In this context, sialic acid (NANA) molecules on the cell surface were used as template and three different NANA-imprinted nanopolymers were developed. Developed nanopolymers with the same chemical properties were also prepared as the control. The sialic acid adsorption on these developed nanopolymers was investigated under different conditions and their binding characteristics were determined. In addition, macroporous albumin scaffolds were prepared and characterized by cryogelation process. Nanopolymer embedded cryogel systems were prepared and characterized by combining the developed nanopolymers with albumin cryogels. Three-dimensional cell culture studies with three different types of cells were carried out at the end of the thesis. As a result, new generation hybrid biomaterials have been obtained which can be used in various biomedical applications.