Lasers can alter the surface composition and properties of materials in a highly controllable way, which makes them efficient and cost-effective tools for surface engineering. This book provides an overview of the different techniques, the laser-material interactions and the advantages and disadvantages for different applications.

Biotechnology has the potential to improve people's quality of life and holds the key to-many unmet clinical needs. In the UK alone the biotechnology market is worth £4.5 billion and estimates of future growth ranks from 10 to 15%. This growth can only be driven by the increased use of inexpensive and easy to manufacture polymeric biomaterials. Although polymer science is a rapidly developing area of research, it remains that one of the most intractable problems encountered in biotechnology is that the performance of polymeric biomaterials depends both upon the bulk and surface properties. In this book the authors describe Their work using lasers to modify the wettability characteristics of nylon 6,6 (as wetting often is the primary factor dictating the adhesion and bonding potential of materials) as a route to enhancing the area in terms of in vitro osteoblast cell response. What is more, modifying wettability characteristics in this way is shown to be a highly attractive means of estimating the biofunctionality of a polymer. The book demonstrates and explains how the generation of a biomimetic polymers and is surface using laser beams provides an in vitro platform on which to deposit and grow cells for either the development of implants or to reconstitute functional tissue. The correlative trends and generic characteristics which are identified are in the book between the laser treatment, wettability characteristics and osteoblast cell response of the nylon 6,6 provide a means to estimate the osteoblast cell response in vivo. The book shows clearly that laser surface modification of polymeric materials has tremendous potential for application within the field of regenerative medicine.