Meet the author of ‘Acidic Polymers Reversibly Deactivate Phages due to pH Changes.’

 

To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Professor Matthew Gibson as they discuss their work entitled ‘Acidic Polymers Reversibly Deactivate Phages due to pH Changes.’


Insight into ‘Acidic Polymers Reversibly Deactivate Phages due to pH Changes’ by Professor Matthew Gibson

Our recent paper in RSC Applied Polymers was our latest as part of our collaboration with Dr Antonio Sagona (Warwick University) and also Dr Peter Kilbride at Cytiva. In this work we explored how synthetic polymers can deactivate Phage (bacteria specific viruses) to stop them infecting bacteria. This was actually a side project emerging from a chance observation:

My team is very interested in new polymer tools to help us cryopreserve important biologics such as cells and proteins. We had started a project to ask how we can cryopreserve bacteriophage, which has not really been widely studied. For any biologic to be ‘useful’ you need to be able to bank it, ship it, and use it, so we wanted to improve this. However, during the work, a PhD student in the team, Dr Huba Marton saw that acidic polymers were not good for cryopreserving Phage, but most other polymers were. After some investigation we noticed that the acidic polymers did cryopreserve the phage, but they also stopped them infecting bacteria (and hence we thought at first they were not cryopreserved).

This recent paper was trying to determine if the acid polymers were ‘special’ or if simply lowering the pH led to the phage inhibition. To cut a long story short, the pH was really crucial, but when we use the polymers, the inhibition is fully reversible but it is not reversible when we lower to the pH with e.g. HCl. This work is important as phage infection is a huge issue in bioprocessing and in research labs: a phage infection can stop all research for weeks, or longer. Having simple tools to prevent their infection (and hence stop propagation) could be very useful. We hope to explore polymer-phage interactions more in the future to see how we can deploy these in biotechnology.

Where do you see your own research going in future?

As part of my teams relocation to Manchester we have become very interested in applying our skills to sustainability. In polymer science most people instantly think of ‘plastics in the environment’ and ‘degradable polymers’ when you say this, but we are thinking beyond this. In particular where clever polymer science can impact in biotechnology.

For example, with my spin-out company Cryologyx Ltd we are exploring how our cryopreservative polymers can bank cell cultures ‘ready to use’. So, a user can just thaw them and use a lot less single use plastic, as they cut out 7 days of work which is plastic-intensive. So, by using a bit more polymer early on (to protect the cells), we can reduce a lot the downstream usage. Similarly if we can develop tools to prevent phage infections you have less down time in bioprocessing and hence make both chemical and energy savings. There is lots of scope at this interface with biotechnology where modern polymer chemistry can make an impact, and I am lucky to be based in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, surround by UK leaders in this area.

We are also using some of our technologies to make shelf-stable rapid diagnostics and therapeutics, with the aim of making these more accessible around the world. We recently published, with Prof Dave Adams at Glasgow, showing a gel to store proteins at room temperature, which we feel is a really big discovery.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07580-0

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

I was honoured by the RSC with the Corday-Morgan Medal earlier this year, so I will be on a lecture tour of several UK universities in the New Year and also at the RSC’s Materials Chemistry 17 Conference in Edinburgh in July. I will also be speaking at the Polymers Gorden Conference next summer in the US.

How do you spend your spare time?

I relocated my laboratory from Warwick to Manchester last year and we recently moved house, so that takes all my spare time right now!  Normally it would be getting into the great outdoors as often as possible, normally with our dog.

 


 

 

Professor Matthew I. Gibson

Professor Matthew I. Gibson

 

Professor Matthew I. Gibson

 Matt holds a Chair in Sustainable Biomaterials at the University of Manchester, UK. His multidisciplinary research group focusses on developing new materials to address challenges in Biotechnology and Healthcare with a particular focus on cryobiology. Matt was a Royal Society Industry Fellow with Cytiva (2019-2023) and has held ERC starter and Consolidator Grants, and is co-founder of the biotech spin-out Cryologyx Ltd. Matt has been awarded several prizes including the McBain, Dextra and MacroGroup Young Researcher’s medals as well prizes from the American Chemical Society, and an RSC Horizon Prize for ‘Team Ice’.

 

https://gibsongroupresearch.com

 

 


Acidic polymers reversibly deactivate phages due to pH changes
Huba L. Marton, Antonia P. Sagona,Peter Kilbrided and Matthew I. Gibson

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/D4LP00202D

Graphical abstract: Acidic polymers reversibly deactivate phages due to pH changes


 

 

RSC Applied Polymers is a leading international journal for the application of polymers, including experimental and computational studies on both natural and synthetic systems. In this journal, you can discover cross-disciplinary scientific research that leverages polymeric materials in a range of applications. This includes high impact advances made possible with polymers across materials, biology, energy applications and beyond.

 

Find out more about the journal

Read our recent articles

Submit your manuscript today

Sign up for email alerts

Follow us on social media 

 

Meet the authors of ‘Investigation of the influence of substituents on the dielectric properties of polyethylene derivatives’

 

To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Bing Zhong, Yu Wang, Yin Zhang and Wei You in a short introduction to their study entitled ‘Investigation of the influence of substituents on the dielectric properties of polyethylene derivatives.’


An Introduction to  ‘Investigation of the influence of substituents on the dielectric properties of polyethylene derivatives.’

Dielectric materials are characterized by their ability to polarize under an applied electric field, a property quantified by the dielectric constant. Polymer dielectrics, valued for their low density, flexibility, and ease of processing, are prevalent in electronics and energy storage. The dielectric constant dictates their utility; for instance, PVDF and its copolymers, with high dielectric constants, serve as capacitors and piezoelectric materials, while BOPP films, with low constants, are used in cable and component packaging.

Polymer dielectrics exhibit multi-scale polarization, influenced by factors from atomic electron clouds to phase interfaces. Their properties are determined by chemical structure, microstructure, and external fields, offering a wide range of tunable dielectric characteristics. However, construction of the structure-property relation is challenging due to the complex interplays among these factors.

You’s research group has employed a novel post-functionalization strategy to study the impact of functional groups on dielectric properties. By introducing various functional groups with precise structures and quantities, they have demonstrated the ability to regulate the dielectric constants of the resulting polymers effectively.

Starting with commercial poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) (EVA), the authors introduced various functional groups, including halogens, phenyl ethers, azides, macrocyclic structures, and norbornene groups, using a approach based on Mitsunobu reactions. These groups not only possess different dipole moments but also modulate the polymer chain’s net dipole moment. The incorporation of halogen groups and macrocyclic structures significantly enhances the energy density and dielectric breakdown strength of the resulting polymers, making them ideal for use in capacitors.

 

 

Fig. 1 General route for polyethylene derivative preparation via the Mitsunobu reaction and chemical structures of the ten study samples.

 

 

Fig. 2 Dielectric comparison of prepared polyethylene derivatives.

 

 

The authors also discovered that blending with linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) can reduce dielectric loss while enhancing the dielectric constant at low frequencies. This enhancement is due to the compatibility between LLDPE and polyethylene derivatives, which facilitates the orderly arrangement of dipole moments, thereby improving polarizability.

Fig. 3 SEM images of (a) PE-Br/LLDPE, (b) PE-I/LLDPE, (c) and PE-OPh/LLDPE blends.

 

 

 

More importantly, the new polymer blends exhibit superior mechanical properties and thermal stability, with a breakdown strength 1.4 times higher than pure LLDPE and an elongation at break exceeding 1000%. These characteristics ensure the reliability of polyethylene-based dielectric materials in high-temperature and high-electric field environments.

Fig. 4 Mechanical property comparison of PE-Br, PE-I, PE-OPh, and their blends.

 

 

 

The study explores the influence of functional group structure on polymer dielectric properties and highlights the Mitsunobu-based post-polymerization functionalization as a platform for evaluating substituent effects on synthetic polymers. This approach is expected to shed new light on enhancing polymer dielectric properties.

 


 

Bing Zhong

Bing Zhong

 

Ms. Bing Zhong obtained her Bachelor degree from Xiangtan University in 2023 and is currently pursuing her PhD degree at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the guidance of Researcher Wei You. As a second-year graduate student, her research endeavors are centered on the in-depth investigation of the dielectric characteristics of materials and the innovative development of gas separation membranes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yu Wang

Yu Wang

 

 

 

 

Dr. Yu Wang got his Bachelor degree from National Cheng Kung University in 2011 and his PhD degree in chemical engineering from National Cheng Kung University in 2018. Then he started as a postdoctoral associate at College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University. Since April 2022, Dr. Wang has been an Assistant Researcher at the Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the microstructural characterization and establishing structure-property relationships for functionalized polyolefin materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yin Zhang

Yin Zhang

 

 

 

 

Dr. Yin Zhang received his PhD degree in 2023 from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of Prof. Wei You. Since December 2023, Dr. Zhang joined the National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Green Preparation Technology of Biobased Materials, Yunnan Minzu University as an Assistant Researcher. His research interest focuses on the design and development of green bio-based polymer materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wei You

Wei You

 

 

Dr. Wei You got his Bachelor degree from Tsinghua University in 2011 and PhD degree in organic chemistry from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2016. Then he started as a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University. Since November 2019, Dr. You joined the Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a principal investigator. His research interest focuses on the preparation of advanced functionalized polyolefin materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Investigation of the influence of substituents on the dielectric properties of polyethylene derivatives.

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/D4LP00117F

Graphical abstract: Investigation of the influence of substituents on the dielectric properties of polyethylene derivatives

 


 

 

RSC Applied Polymers is a leading international journal for the application of polymers, including experimental and computational studies on both natural and synthetic systems. In this journal, you can discover cross-disciplinary scientific research that leverages polymeric materials in a range of applications. This includes high impact advances made possible with polymers across materials, biology, energy applications and beyond.

 

Find out more about the journal

Read our recent articles

Submit your manuscript today

Sign up for email alerts

Follow us on social media 

Insight from the authors of ‘Poly(L-glutamic acid) augments the transfection performance of lipophilic polycations by overcoming tradeoffs among cytotoxicity, pDNA delivery efficiency, and serum stability.’

 

To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Ramya Kumar in a short interview about their study entitled ‘Poly(L-glutamic acid) augments the transfection performance of lipophilic polycations by overcoming tradeoffs among cytotoxicity, pDNA delivery efficiency, and serum stability.’


Insight from the authors of ‘Poly(L-glutamic acid) augments the transfection performance of lipophilic polycations by overcoming tradeoffs among cytotoxicity, pDNA delivery efficiency, and serum stability.’

 

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

In just the last four years, we have witnessed several breakthroughs in how cell- and gene-based therapeutics can save lives. These lifesaving treatments are currently restricted to a privileged cohort residing predominantly in wealthy Western countries. Synthetic materials, such as polymers, can broaden access to these treatments so that more people can afford to benefit from them. We are living in an exciting period where synthetic polymer chemistry, machine learning tools, and next-gen biologics are evolving in tandem. We have the unprecedented opportunity to leverage these advances to democratize access to these technologies. Even if the materials we study in the lab don’t end up succeeding in a clinical setting, the training we pass on to the next generation of scientists is invaluable in solving similar problems in related research domains.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in your field of research?

  1. Are polymer design rules conserved across diverse genome editor payloads? Protein engineers are innovating more powerful and sophisticated genome editor proteins at a rapid pace. It’s important that polymers keep up with this rapidly evolving landscape. We don’t yet know if the same polymer will be universally efficacious in delivering all genome editors.
  2. What are the molecular design principles driving cell-type-preferential nucleic acid delivery? Polymers must deliver nucleic acids to target cells while avoiding off-target cells. Unlike lipid nanoparticles, where ligand-free nanocarriers are being engineered through rational protein corona design, molecular principles governing polymer-mediated gene delivery across cell types remain elusive.
  3. How can we design polymeric cell culture substrates that help us model important cellular transformations such as stem cell self-renewal and macrophage activation?Current experimental models for interrogating these cellular processes are limited in the questions they can ask and often fail to draw robust conclusions. Cell culture substrates functionalized with bioinstructive polymer coatings can catalyze cellular transformations and answer fundamental cell biology questions.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

In both of my research thrusts (bioinstructive polymer coatings and polymers for nucleic acid delivery), subtle alterations to polymer composition and molecular design can have dramatic effects on their biological performance. Some of these experimental outcomes cannot be predicted using current heuristics and structure-function relationships. Explaining why some polymers perform well in a given biomaterial application while others falter has always been challenging. Developing tools (e.g., high-throughput proteomics, machine learning models) to better understand and predict these counterintuitive results is going to take time, but I am excited about the potential of these predictive tools.

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

I just attended ACS Denver and will be co-organizing the Society for Biomaterials Western Conference in Denver this September.

Where do you see your own research going in the future?

Currently, my lab applies polymer synthesis, biointerfacial characterization, and machine learning to lower economic, manufacturing, and logistical barriers confronted by cellular and macromolecular therapeutics. I always hope to work at the interface of polymers and biology. In the long term, it would be exciting to apply personalized and precision medicine approaches to polymeric biomaterial design so that we can create bespoke polymers that adapt to individual patients’ immune systems. It would also be interesting to integrate polymer chemistry tools with multi-omics datasets to engineer patient-specific nanocarriers.

Summary of ‘Poly(L-glutamic acid) augments the transfection performance of lipophilic polycations by overcoming tradeoffs among cytotoxicity, pDNA delivery efficiency, and serum stability.’

Polycations are promising nanocarriers for delivering therapeutic nucleic acids due to their scalability and affordability, but efficient polycationic vehicles often exhibit high cytotoxicity and poor serum stability, hindering clinical translation. The study investigates the use of poly(L-glutamic acid) (PGA) as a surface modifier to improve the performance of lipophilic polycations in plasmid DNA (pDNA) delivery, aiming to resolve the trade-offs between nucleic acid delivery efficiency, cytotoxicity, and serum stability. The sequence of addition of polycations, pDNA, and PGA is critical, with PGA needing to be added last to avoid disrupting polycation-mediated pDNA condensation. Techniques like circular dichroism spectroscopy, PicoGreen dye exclusion assays, and confocal microscopy were used to analyze polyplex properties and performance. Key findings include that PGA significantly reduces the cytotoxicity of lipophilic polycations, tripling the population of transfected viable cells, and improves serum tolerance, preventing aggregation and maintaining pDNA delivery efficiency in serum-containing media. Despite lower cellular uptake, PGA-coated polyplexes are imported into nuclei at higher rates, enhancing transgene expression, and PGA silences the hemolytic activity of lipophilic polycations, protecting red blood cells from lysis. The study provides insights into how polyanionic coatings like PGA can transform the interactions between polycations, nucleic acids, and serum proteins, facilitating efficient and gentle transgene delivery, and suggests further research could explore the interactions of polyplexes with other blood components and the potential for receptor-mediated uptake. This work highlights the potential of PGA as a surface modifier to enhance the safety and efficacy of polycation-based gene delivery systems, offering a promising strategy for clinical applications.


 

Ram Prasad Sekar

Ram Prasad Sekar

 

Ram Prasad Sekar Ram received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Madras Medical College in Chennai, India, where he worked on the synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. He completed his Ph.D. degree at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) (2014-2020) under the supervision of Prof. A. Jayakrishnan and Prof. T. S. Sampath Kumar. His doctoral thesis mainly focused on combinational delivery of anticancer drugs, developing bone void substitutes, and multidrug encapsulated ceramic/polymer grafted nanoparticles for bone cancer therapy. He also had a brief career in the pharmaceutical sector, successfully transferring lab-scale drug formulations to pilot-scale production. He recently completed a research associate position at the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology (RGCB) in India, where he worked on polymer drug conjugates for brain-targeted drug delivery. Ram is passionate about developing novel therapeutic systems for complex diseases, as well as nanoformulations, materials characterization, and biomaterials. Aside from academic research, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling to new places, cooking new dishes in his own unique style, and reading fiction books.

 

 

 

Jessica Lawson

Jessica Lawson

 

Jessica Lawson Jessica received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Materials Science and Engineering in Spring 2022. There, she performed undergraduate research in designing polymers for 3D printing using frontal polymerization (at Prof. Nancy Sottos’ lab). She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Materials Science, focusing on developing self-assembled polymer systems for biomaterial applications. Her research interests are primarily in polymer synthesis and characterization. Some of her interests outside of research include cooking, baking, and playing soccer and volleyball with friends. Jessica was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ramya Kumar

Ramya Kumar

 

Ramya Kumar Ramya obtained her B.E. (Hons.) in chemical engineering from BITS Pilani, India, and her PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At Michigan, she received a Rackham Predoctoral fellowship, the Procter & Gamble Team Innovation award, and the Richard & Eleanor Towner Prize for creative and innovative teaching. Ramya is also an ACS PMSE Future Faculty awardee. Ramya completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. In January 2022, Ramya began her independent career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Her lab applies controlled radical polymerization, surface-initiated polymerization, and statistical modeling to engineer polymeric nanocarriers for nucleic acid delivery and polymer coatings that direct and interrogate cell behavior. In August 2023, she was awarded an NIH R21 to develop polymer coatings for mesenchymal stem cell engineering. She has authored 17 publications (in journals such as ACS Nano, JACS Au, Macromolecules, ACS AMI, ACS Macro Letters) and 3 patents. She is a member of the American Chemical Society, AICHE, and the Society for Biomaterials. Outside work, Ramya enjoys long-distance running, writing for Substack, baking naturally fermented bread, and reading literary fiction.

 

 

 

 


 

Poly(L-glutamic acid) augments the transfection performance of lipophilic polycations by overcoming tradeoffs among cytotoxicity, pDNA delivery efficiency, and serum stability.’

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024,2, 701-718. DOI: 10.1039/D4LP00085D

Graphical abstract: Poly(l-glutamic acid) augments the transfection performance of lipophilic polycations by overcoming tradeoffs among cytotoxicity, pDNA delivery efficiency, and serum stability

 


 

 

 

RSC Applied Polymers is a leading international journal for the application of polymers, including experimental and computational studies on both natural and synthetic systems. In this journal, you can discover cross-disciplinary scientific research that leverages polymeric materials in a range of applications. This includes high impact advances made possible with polymers across materials, biology, energy applications and beyond.

 

Find out more about the journal

Read our recent articles

Submit your manuscript today

Sign up for email alerts

Follow us on social media 

Hear from the authors of ‘The Luminous Frontier: Transformative NIR-IIa Fluorescent Polymer Dots for Deep-Tissue Imaging.’

 

To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Richardson Lawrance and Partha Chowdhury about their study entitled The Luminous Frontier: Transformative NIR-IIa Fluorescent Polymer Dots for Deep-Tissue Imaging.

Want to know more about their work? Read the full paper here

 


An introduction to ‘The Luminous Frontier: Transformative NIR-IIa Fluorescent Polymer Dots for Deep-Tissue Imaging’ by Richardson Lawrance, Partha Chowdhury, Hong-Cheu Lin and Yang-Hsiang Chan.

In our recent review article published in RSC Applied Polymers, we delve into the cutting-edge field of deep-tissue imaging, highlighting the advancements in fluorescence imaging within the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm). This wavelength range, particularly the NIR-IIa region (1300–1400 nm), has emerged as a powerful tool for probing biological processes with unparalleled depth and clarity. Among the various NIR-II fluorophores, polymer dots (Pdots) stand out due to their exceptional brightness, remarkable photostability, superior water dispersibility, and ease of structural modification, making them highly advantageous over traditional fluorescent molecules.

Our review sheds light on the critical role of NIR-IIa Pdots in overcoming imaging challenges, such as reducing light scattering, minimizing autofluorescence, and lowering light absorption by biological tissues. By exploring the intricate relationship between chemical structures and their photophysical properties, we offer a comprehensive guide to the design and application of high-performance NIR-IIa Pdots, paving the way for significant advancements in deep-tissue imaging. Moreover, we address the possible challenges and future outlooks that could significantly impact the development of NIR-IIa fluorophores, providing insights that are crucial for the continued evolution of this promising field.

 


Richardson Lawrance

Richardson Lawrence

 

Richardson Lawrance completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemistry (2015–2020) at Dwaraka Doss Goverdhan Doss Vaishnav College, affiliated with the University of Madras in Tamil Nadu, India. In 2021, he joined the research group of Prof. Hong-Cheu Lin in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan, in collaboration with Prof. Yang-Hsiang Chan in the Department of Applied Chemistry. His research focuses on developing organic fluorescent and polymeric nanomaterials for biological sensing and imaging applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Partha Chowdhury

Partha Chowdhury

 

Partha Chowdhury completed his B.Sc. in Chemistry (Honors) and M.Sc. in Applied Chemistry at the University of Calcutta, and M.Tech in Polymer Science & Technology at IIT Delhi. He worked for a textile chemical company (B R Specialities LLP) as a Researcher from 2020 to 2021. Then he joined the group of Prof. Yang-Hsiang Chan at the Department of Applied Chemistry, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan. His research is focused on the development of NIR-II emitting ultrabright semiconducting Pdots for deep tissue imaging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yang-Hsiang Chan

Yang-Hsiang Chan

 

Yang-Hsiang Chan is a Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry, NYCU, Taiwan. He received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU, Taiwan) and Ph.D. degree in Analytical Chemistry from Texas A&M University in 2010. After postdoctoral training at the University of Washington, he joined the faculty of NSYSU in 2012 and moved to NYCU in 2018. His current research focuses on the design and synthesis of semiconducting polymers to explore their sensing and biological imaging applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hong-Cheu Lin

Hong-Cheu Lin

 

Hong-Cheu Lin is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NYCU, Taiwan. He earned his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU, Taiwan) and later obtained his M.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, US. In 1992, he completed his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Following his role as an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Chemistry in Academia Sinica, Taiwan, he joined the faculty of NYCU in 2000. Professor Lin’s current research focuses on organic fluorescent materials, smart polymeric materials, and self-healing materials. These materials have wide-ranging applications, including biological sensing and imaging, flexible electronics for wearable devices, and sensors with actuator properties. His work continues to drive innovation in materials science, particularly in areas that intersect with advanced technology and healthcare.

 

 

 

 

 


 

The Luminous Frontier: Transformative NIR-IIa Fluorescent Polymer Dots for Deep-Tissue Imaging

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024, Advance Article

 

Graphical abstract: The luminous frontier: transformative NIR-IIa fluorescent polymer dots for deep-tissue imaging


 

 

RSC Applied Polymers is a leading international journal for the application of polymers, including experimental and computational studies on both natural and synthetic systems. In this journal, you can discover cross-disciplinary scientific research that leverages polymeric materials in a range of applications. This includes high impact advances made possible with polymers across materials, biology, energy applications and beyond.

 

Find out more about the journal

Read our recent articles

Submit your manuscript today

Sign up for email alerts

Follow us on social media 

Introducing the ‘Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption’ ongoing collection, featuring papers from across RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces

RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are pleased to announce the launch of a new series of themed collections in support of the Global Sustainable Development Goals initiated by the United Nations.

These collections highlight the current research taking place by scientists across the globe which demonstrates the ways in which chemical science is helping to make the world a better place.

RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are delighted to share the new collection centred around:

Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption

This SDG collection focuses on Sustainable Development Goal 12: responsible production and consumption. Articles in this collection showcase the inventive means in which chemical scientists are striving to improve the synthesis and consumption of materials across various industries by developing sustainable sources and processes which do not rely upon the destruction of the Earth’s resources, and which provides cleaner environmental outcomes.

Don’t forget that RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are both Gold open access journals, that means all our articles are free to read, including our new Sustainable Development Goals collections! The highly applied and interdisciplinary work included in these collections serve as a perfect example of the kind of papers we would like to see more of in RSC Applied Interfaces and RSC Applied Polymers.


Take a look at some of the articles featured in the collection:

 

Rare-metal-free high-performance water-activated paper battery: a disposable energy source for wearable sensing devices

Kosuke Ishibashi, Shimpei Ono, Jun Kamei, Koju Itod  and Hiroshi Yabu

RSC Appl. Interfaces, 2024,1, 435-442

DOI: 10.1039/D4LF00039K

 

Pristine coconut husk biowaste and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate/methyl acrylate-based novel oleophilic gels for oil spill cleanup

Kavita Devi, Ghanshyam S. Chauhan, Sunita Ranote, Sandeep Chauhan and Kiran Kumar

RSC Appl. Polym., 2023,1, 325-337

 

DOI: 10.1039/D3LP00118K

 

Cyclic ketal bridged bisepoxides: enabling the design of degradable epoxy-amine thermosets for carbon fiber composite applications

Benjamin M. Alameda, Margaret S. Kumler, J. Scott Murphy, Jeffrey S. Aguinaga and Derek L. Patton

RSC Appl. Polym., 2023,1, 254-265

DOI: 10.1039/D3LP00095H


Currently working towards one of the UN global sustainability goals? Submit your manuscript to RSC Applied Polymers or RSC Applied Interfaces to have it included in this ongoing collection!

Please check the journal websites for scope and submission details.

We hope you enjoy reading from our new sustainable development goals collections.

Keep an eye out for our other Sustainable Development Goals collections.

Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing

Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy 

These collections are not curated in affiliation with the United Nations but are representative of Royal Society of Chemistry’s support for the Global Sustainability Goals initiated by the United Nations.

To find out more about the United Nations Global Sustainability Goals visit https://sdgs.un.org

Introducing the ‘Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy’ ongoing collection, featuring articles from across RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces

RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are pleased to announce the launch of a new series of themed collections in support of the Global Sustainable Development Goals initiated by the United Nations.

These collections highlight the current research taking place by scientists across the globe which demonstrates the ways in which chemical science is helping to make the world a better place.

RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are delighted to share the new collection centred around:

Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

This SDG collection focuses on Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable and clean energy. These articles reflect the intensive work and strategies being developed to tackle the worlds energy needs and the initiatives devised to improve the efficiency of clean sustainable energy sources.

Don’t forget that RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are both Gold open access journals, that means all our articles are free to read, including our new Sustainable Development Goals collections! The highly applied and interdisciplinary work included in these collections serve as a perfect example of the kind of papers we would like to see more of in RSC Applied Interfaces and RSC Applied Polymers.


Take a look at some of the articles featured in the collection:

 

Recent advances in semiconductor heterojunctions: a detailed review of the fundamentals of photocatalysis, charge transfer mechanism and materials

Aniket Balapure, Jayati Ray Dutta and Ramakrishnan Ganesan

RSC Appl. Interfaces, 2024,1, 43-69

DOI: 10.1039/D3LF00126A

 

 

Inherent limitations of the hydrogen-bonding UPy motif as self-healing functionality for polymer electrolytes

Cuc Thu Mai, Harish Gudla, Guiomar Hernández, Kristina Edström and Jonas Mindemark

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024,2, 374-383

DOI: 10.1039/D4LP00017J

 

 

 

The effects of selectively blocking the electron transport layer of n-i-p perovskite solar cells with polymer particles on device performance

Amal Altujjar, Ran Wang, Xuelian Wang,  Jennifer M. Saunders,a   Zhenyu Jia, Ben Spencer, Nigel Hodson,  Janet Jacobs, Osama M. Alkhudhari, Andrew Thomas, Richard Curry  and Brian R. Saunders

RSC Appl. Interfaces, 2024,1, 591-599

DOI: 10.1039/D4LF00062E

 


Currently working towards one of the UN global sustainability goals? Submit your manuscript to RSC Applied Polymers or RSC Applied Interfaces to have it included in this ongoing collection!

Please check the journal websites for scope and submission details.

We hope you enjoy reading from our new sustainable development goals collections.

Keep an eye out for our other Sustainable Development Goals collections.

Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing

Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption

These collections are not curated in affiliation with the United Nations but are representative of Royal Society of Chemistry’s support for the Global Sustainability Goals initiated by the United Nations.

To find out more about the United Nations Global Sustainability Goals visit https://sdgs.un.org

Introducing the ‘Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing’ ongoing collection, featuring papers across RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces

RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are pleased to announce the launch of a new series of themed collections in support of the Global Sustainable Development Goals initiated by the United Nations.

These collections highlight the current research taking place by scientists across the globe which demonstrates the ways in which chemical science is helping to make the world a better place.

RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are delighted to share the new collection centred around:

Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing

This Sustainable Development Goal collection focuses on Sustainable Development Goal 3: good health and well-being, with articles that explore procedures, practices and technology in modern medicine which can help address the growing concerns for world health and ensure sustainable and affordable future health outcomes for everyone.

Don’t forget that RSC Applied Polymers and RSC Applied Interfaces are both Gold open access journals, that means all our articles are free to read, including our new Sustainable Development Goals collections! The highly applied and interdisciplinary work included in these collections serve as a perfect example of the kind of papers we would like to see more of in RSC Applied Interfaces and RSC Applied Polymers.


Take a look at some of the articles featured in the collection:

 

Triblock copolymer micelles enhance solubility, permeability and activity of a quorum sensing inhibitor against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms

Karolina Kasza, Fadi Soukarieh, Manuel Romero, Kim R. Hardie, Pratik Gurnani, Miguel Cámara and Cameron Alexander

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024,2, 444-455

DOI: 10.1039/D3LP00208J

 

Recent advances in removal of pharmaceutical pollutants in wastewater using metal oxides and carbonaceous materials as photocatalysts: a review

Suneel Kumar Srivastava

RSC Appl. Interfaces, 2024,1, 340-429

DOI: 10.1039/D3LF00142C

 

Matrix metalloproteinase responsive hydrogel microplates for programmed killing of invasive tumour cells

Alexander B. Cook, Annalisa Palange, Michele Schlich, Elena Bellotti, Sayanti Brahmachari,a   Martina di Francescoa and Paolo Decuzzia

RSC Appl. Polym., 2023,1, 19-29

DOI: 10.1039/D3LP00057E


Currently working towards one of the UN global sustainability goals? Submit your manuscript to RSC Applied Polymers or RSC Applied Interfaces to have it included in this ongoing collection!

Please check the journal websites for scope and submission details.

We hope you enjoy reading from our new sustainable development goals collections.

 

Keep an eye out for our other Sustainable Development Goals collections.

Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Sustainable Development Goal 12: Responsible Production and Consumption

These collections are not curated in affiliation with the United Nations but are representative of Royal Society of Chemistry’s support for the Global Sustainability Goals initiated by the United Nations.

To find out more about the United Nations Global Sustainability Goals visit https://sdgs.un.org

Hear from the authors of ‘Polymeric biomaterials for periodontal tissue engineering and periodontitis’

 

To celebrate the growth and development of the RSC Applied Polymers community and to highlight the remarkable authors who continue to contribute their high quality work to the journal we would like to share the opinions and insights of these authors through this introductory blog post. Once dubbed #RSCAppliedfirst50, our blog posts aim to give a voice to the authors behind the research and hope that their insights might shed light upon growing challenges and progress in polymer science and its applications.

In this edition, we hear from Professor Nermin Seda Kehr, Yağmur Damla Demir and Gizem Yürük about their study entitled Polymeric biomaterials for periodontal tissue engineering and periodontitis.

 

 

 

Want to know more about their work? Read the full paper here!


 

Gizem Yürük

Gizem Yürük

Gizem Yürük is a final year student at Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry. For a certain period of time, she conducted research on nanomaterials and hydrogels in the laboratory group led by Nermin Seda Kehr. Her previous studies include investigating the antibacterial properties of nanomaterials and improving the clinical trial process.
Yağmur Damla Demir

Yağmur Damla Demir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yağmur Damla Demir completed her BSc in Chemistry at Izmir Institute of Technology and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at the same institution. She is conducting research on nanomaterials and local drug delivery in Nermin Seda Kehr’s group. Her previous work involved metal catalysts and polymer solubility systems.

 

 

 

 

 

Nermin Seda Kehr

Nermin Seda Kehr

 

 

 

 

Nermin Seda Kehr did her Ph.D. at the University of Münster. After postdoctoral research at the University of Münster and University of Strasbourg, she built up her own research group. She received the National Scientific qualification as Full Professor for the disciplinary field “Bioengineering” in the Italian higher education system and completed her habilitation with the Venia Legendi award in Organic Chemistry at the University of Münster in 2021. She is currently working as an Associate Professor at Izmir Institute of Technology. Her research interests include functional nanomaterials and surfaces, injectable nanocomposite hydrogels, 3D bioprinting and local drug delivery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Polymeric biomaterials for periodontal tissue engineering and periodontitis

RSC Appl. Polym., 2024, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D4LP00001C

 


 

 

RSC Applied Polymers is a leading international journal for the application of polymers, including experimental and computational studies on both natural and synthetic systems. In this journal, you can discover cross-disciplinary scientific research that leverages polymeric materials in a range of applications. This includes high impact advances made possible with polymers across materials, biology, energy applications and beyond.

 

Find out more about the journal

Read our recent articles

Submit your manuscript today

Sign up for email alerts

Follow us on social media 

 

Congratulations to the prize winners at POLYMAT Spotlight 2024

The POLYMAT Spotlight 2024 International Workshop on Macromolecular Materials (POLYMAT Spotlight 2024) took place in San Sebastian, Spain during 11-14th June 2024. RSC Applied Polymers, Chemical Science and Chemical Communications were pleased to support prizes at this event and we would like to congratulate our winners!

Photo of Marco Caliari with Prof Luis Campos during award ceremony.

Marco Caliari (left) with Prof Luis Campos (right) during award ceremony.

Photo of Marcin A. Majewski with Prof Luis Campos during award ceremony.

Marcin A. Majewski (left) with Prof Luis Campos (right) during award ceremony.

Photo of Marina González Sánchez with Prof Luis Campos during award ceremony.

Marina González Sánchez (left) with Prof Luis Campos (right) during award ceremony.

Learn more about the prize winners below:

Photo of prize winner Marco-Caliari.

RSC Applied Polymers Prize

Marco Caliari (University of the Basque Country)

Marco Caliari completed his Bachelor studies at the University of Bologna in 2019 with a thesis on the development of biobased, super amphiphilic vitrimers carried out in an Erasmus framework at the University of Groningen. Interested in knowing more about sustainability and polymers, he enrolled at KU Leuven. After completing an Internship at the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Fribourg (CH) in the field of supramolecular polymers, he graduated in 2021 with a thesis exploring the synthesis of novel hyperbranched polymers with applications in catalysis. He is now MSCA Fellow in the NIPU-EJD framework working towards the development on new CO2-derived 3D printable resins.

Photo of prize winner Marcin A. Majewski.

Chemical Science Prize

Marcin A. Majewski (University of Wroclaw)

I have a Masters and a PhD degree in organic chemistry, done in the group of Prof Marcin Stępień at the University of Wroclaw (Poland), where I am now pursuing my own research project as an Assistant Professor. In 2020-2022 I joined Prof Harry Anderson in Oxford as a Marie Currie Fellow to create novel, three-dimensional nanoarchitectures based on porphyrin subunits, which could be studied as models for energy and electron transfer, inspired by natural light-harvesting systems. Currently, I’m trying to merge the worlds of dendrimers and macrocycles to build large, aromatic systems by means of covalent templating.

Follow me on X (formerly know as Twitter) @MajewskiMarcinA for more, including collaboration opportunities.

Photo of prize winner Marina González Sánchez.

Chemical Communications Prize

Marina González (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

My name is Marina González Sánchez, and I am currently in the final year of my PhD at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, within the research group of Prof David González Rodríguez (MSMn). My research focuses on the development of new π-functional supramolecular materials. Specifically, I study how non-covalent interactions between nucleobases contribute to the formation of ordered supramolecular structures at the nanometric level. The main objective is the creation and improvement of properties in materials and organic systems through rational molecular ordering at the nanometric scale using supramolecular self-assembly tools.

Outside of my research, I enjoy sharing scientific insights on my X account @Marina_chem, where I occasionally discuss various scientific topics.

We’d like to congratulate all the prize winners once more, it’s a great achievement for their work to be selected from all the excellent research presented at the event. Thanks to Prof Luis Campos (Associate Editor for Chemical Science) for presenting the awards! We’d also like to thank all organisers, especially Aurelio Mateo-Alonso (Koke) for organising this conference.

Selfie Competition at IUPAC Macro 2024

We are hosting a competition on social media as part of IUPAC Macro 2024. To get involved, simply take a selfie with one of our editors and post it to your preferred social media platform using #RSCAppliedPolymersSelfie. You can make one entry per editor and the prizes for best selfies will include an exclusive Ocean Bottle Brew Flask. These are made from 90% recycled stainless steel and every Brew funds the collection of 1000 ocean bound plastic bottles! 

Competition Terms and Conditions 

  1. Eligible posts must include the hashtag #RSCAppliedPolymersSelfie  
  2. One winner will be selected at random by each RSC Applied Polymers editor from all selfie image entries shared to social media by 23.59 BST on 3rd July 2024 
  3. Social media channels to include X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram 
  4. Winners will be notified via their original social media post by 10:00 BST on 4th July with information about how to claim their prize 
  5. Unsuccessful entrants may not be notified 
  6. Only one entry per individual, per editor. Up to four entries in total 
  7. No cash prize alternatives are available 
  8. The name and image of entrants and winners may be used in RSC marketing activities 
  9. Employees of the RSC will not be eligible to enter this competition 
  10. The Royal Society of Chemistry will store any personal data you supply on its electronic records in order to contact you further about this competition and it will NOT be passed on to third parties. 

Get involved and follow RSC Applied Polymers on X (@RSCApplied) and LinkedIn