Materials for Biomedical Applications
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this introduction to how cells interact with the surfaces of biomaterials. The course covers surface chemistry and physics of selected metals, polymers, and ceramics, methods for characterizing surfaces, and techniques for modifying biomaterial surfaces. It examines quantitative assays of cell behavior in culture, biosensors and microarrays, bulk properties of implants, and the acute and chronic biological response to implanted devices. Broader themes include drug delivery and tissue engineering, connecting surface science to real medical device design. Materials come from MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, and include course notes and problem sets typical of MIT OCW offerings. There is no certificate; the value is the curriculum itself, aimed at students who want a materials-science grounding in how the body responds to implanted devices.