This chapter describes the science and technology to develop extremely biocompatible UNCD coatings for encapsulation of devices to treat the glaucoma condition, related to clogging of natural tubes in the human eye’ trabecular mesh, which continuously drain the eye’ fluid from the inner part to keep the internal eye pressure constant. Clogging of the tubes produce overpressure in the eye, resulting in the destruction of the optical nerve and blindness. Two types of devices are being developed by the authors of this chapter, namely: 1) Hydrophobic (no eye fluid adsorption) UNCD coating on commercial polymer-based drain valves (hydrophilic-eye’ fluid adsorption), to practically eliminate attachment of proteins on hydrophilic polymer surface, thus fibrosis that reduce implant lifetime. 2)The second device consists of a novel metallic multi-hole circular grid, made of Ti, coated with a UNCD film and implanted in the eye’ trabecular region, providing efficient drainage of the eye’ fluid through the many holes existing in the structure. The UNCD-coated grid provides a smaller, less intrusive and more efficient device for treatment of glaucoma than the current commercial much larger valves based on polymers, which exhibit extensive biofouling.

Biomaterials are being investigated to produce platform as scaffolds for cell/tissue growth and differentiation/regeneration. Cell-materials, chemical and biological interactions enable the application of more functional materials in the area of bioengineering, providing a pathway to novel treatment of humans suffering from tissue/organ damage and facing limitation of donation organs. Many studies were done on the tissue/organ regeneration. Development of new scaffolds for cell/tissue regeneration is a key R&D field. This chapter focuses on describing R&D on the novel ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) film as a unique biomaterial for scaffolds for developmental biology. Recent research showed that cells grown on the surface of UNCD-coated culture dishes are similar to cell culture dishes with little retardation, indicating UNCD films have no or little inhibition on cell proliferation and are potentially appealing as substrate/scaffold materials. The mechanisms of cell adhesion on UNCD surfaces are proposed based on the experimental results. The comparisons of cell cultures on diamond-powder-seeded culture dishes and on UNCD-coated dishes with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization - time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF MS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses provided valuable data to support the mechanisms proposed to explain the adhesion and proliferation of cells on the surface of UNCD scaffolds.