Non-fouling surfaces – a longstanding challenge
From the invention of the Scribner Shunt made of Teflon in 1960 which made regular access to the bloodstream and thereby kidney dialysis possible, blood-contacting applications of biomaterials have saved millions of lives (see Ratner, Hoffman, Schoen, Lemons: Biomaterials Science, Elsevier Academic Press). Surfaces coated with the polymer poly(ethylene glycol) have been shown to exhibit a particularly low degree of protein adsorption, achieving a more than hundred-fold lower reduction in the amount of adsorbed protein. Despite a tremendous amount of research in the past decades, the improvement of polymer coatings is still actively pursued.