Smart Biomaterials and Biopreservation to Improve Human Health

 Ayşe Aslıhan Gökaltun

Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Advancements in biomaterials and biopreservation technologies are critical to overcoming key bottlenecks in clinical care, from wound management to organ transplantation. To highlight the state-of-the-art in these fields and reflect on current challenges and opportunities, this talk will first present our development of stimuli-responsive supramolecular hydrogels to enhance wound healing, deter infection and provide pain-free burn care for patients. These hydrogels are engineered to be tunable, biocompatible, and scalable for translational deployment.

In parallel, I will share our progress in supercooled biopreservation, where we extended the functional viability of primary hepatocyte monolayers up to three days, preserving both morphology and metabolic function. This work opens avenues for long-range transport and banking of engineered tissues, with implications for cell-based therapies and donor organ preservation. Together, these technologies highlight the potential of smart biomaterials and biopreservation strategies to improve clinical applications and expand the reach of next-generation therapies.

About speaker

Dr. Aslihan Gokaltun is a faculty member at the Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She joined the faculty in 2021 after completing her postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Drs. Martin Yarmush and Berk Usta where she co-led several federally funded initiatives. Dr. Gokaltun received her BSc, MSc, and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Hacettepe University in Türkiye. Her research focuses on engineering next-generation biomaterials and preservation strategies to enhance wound care and therapeutic delivery, bridge preclinical and clinical domains, and address unmet medical needs across diverse patient populations.