Polymer Chemistry Blog

Eva Harth studied chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany, and the University of Zurich, Switzerland. In 1998 she obtained her PhD for work in the area of fullerene adducts and polymers from the MPI for Polymer Research.  A postdoctoral fellowship with CPIMA (NSF-Center for Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Assemblies) brought her to the IBM Almaden Research Center, California USA, to work under the direction of Prof. Craig J. Hawker. In 2001 she joined XenoPort, Inc. as a Staff Scientist investigating enabling technologies for the increased bioavailability of macromolecular therapeutics and took a position as Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Chemistry in 2004 with a secondary appointment in the department of Pharmacology. In 2011 she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and is member of the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), Institute of Chemical Biology (VICB) and the Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering(VINSE). She is serving on the Editorial Board of Polymer Chemistry since its start in 2009 and is one of its Associate Editors. As advisory editorial board member she is active for ACS MacroLetters, Macromolecules and as associate editorial board member for the American Journal of Cancer Research. The focus of her research advances delivery technologies across challenging biological barriers and towards highly vascular tumors.

Please follow the link for further information on Eva’s research group and her recent paper published in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I liked to find out how biological processes work and then I started to like the fact that I could make a real product with my hands and enjoyed bench work.  Chemistry is so versatile and affects so many areas in life and provides hopefully the better solution to an existing problem.  My current work focuses on questions in the biomedical field; I appreciate to know about the clinical challenges through collaborators and being in an inspiring environment. I think it is about what questions and challenges you want to pick as a chemist and that you have means to go after them in many different ways; this is the most exciting part.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?

It is an extension of a paper that we have published in 2007 describing intramolecular chain crosslinkers other than benzocyclobutenes because they have been notoriously difficult to make.  The clean reaction of these derivatives was always attractive to build nanoscopic materials, going back to the work of Craig Hawker and Bob Miller at IBM. In the current paper we describe a low temperature version that might be useful to engage these benzocyclobutene units to a broader application. Although, at the moment the majority of my work is directed to find practical chemistries to utilize cross-linking reactions to prepare controlled macromolecular networks involving a multitude of chains. We found that these structures “nanosponges” have beneficial properties to solubilize but also release drug molecules based on the applied crosslinking conditions with striking effects in vivo.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

It has a large readership in Europe and the US and wanted to place it where it is likely to be read by a very diverse audience like it is known from RSC journals. Of course, I find it to be a wonderful journal and I am glad that it found very quickly a large acceptance in the field and that authors really send their best work.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend both ACS meetings, for the first time I will participate in the AACR conference in Chicago in April. In May, I am in Rostock, Germany, and give a talk at the implants and biomaterials conference, then Warwick 2012, where the impact factor of Polymer Chemistry will be announced (!) and later in the year, the ACN Nanomedicine conference in Sydney and the Nanotech conference in CA. Two Zing Conferences in November, one of them will be a Polymer Chemistry conference focused on materials for biomedical and energy applications which will be a great conference bridging the fastest developing areas of polymer research.

How do you spend your spare times?

I started last year to get my private pilot license and I hope that I can have my first solo this year. Tennessee has these little airports all over the place and the countryside is beautiful, perfect to see it from the air and fly (in a Cessna) to cute places.

Which profession would you chose if you were not a scientist?

I would work in an auction house, as art dealer or architect. It is a great joy for me to find and collect pieces of young artists. All my family is working in construction and interior design and I could always relate to it.

Neil Cameron undertook his B.Sc. (1987-1991) and Ph.D. (1991-1994) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Following two post-doctoral periods, first in Eindhoven then at Heriot Watt University, he was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at Durham University in October 1997. In 2005 he was promoted to Reader and in October 2008 to Professor. His research is focused on the preparation of bioactive and bio-inspired macromolecules. His research to date has led to the publication of >80 articles, reviews and book chapters and he has given >75 invited lectures at conferences and colloquiua. Currently, he is co-editing a major book on Porous Polymers. He was awarded the 2003 Young Researchers’ Medal from the Macro Group U.K. (a joint subject group of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemical Industry) and he was a Durham University Christopherson/Knott Fellow for 2008-09. He is currently a member of the EPSRC college, an Honorary Reader in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Newcastle and is a Committee Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Biomaterials Interest Group. He was Durham University’s representative for the 2008 EPSRC International Review of Materials.

Please follow the links for further information on Neil’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I had always enjoyed science and maths, but I had a very good chemistry teacher at school who introduced me to the wonders of chemistry.  I guess like many boys, I was initially interested in making explosions (!), but that was soon replaced with a more general interest in synthetic chemistry.  In those days, we did lots of experiments in the classroom (many of these would be illegal now!), which I found particularly inspiring.  When it came time to choose a subject to study at university, chemistry was the only thing I was interested in.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?

We have been working on glycopolymers for quite a few years now.  It is widely known that they demonstrate multivalency, that is, the strength of binding to proteins (lectins) increases non-linearly with the number of sugar residues.  However, there are very few detailed examinations of this effect for linear glycopolymers.  We had been using RAFT to prepare glycopolymers of different chain lengths so it seemed like an ideal opportunity to probe the influence of chain length (and thus valency) on binding.  With techniques such as isothermal titration calorimetry and surface plasmon resonance you can determine not just the binding constant but also the thermodynamics of binding.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

The paper is a contribution to a special issue on Bioconjugates, but we would most likely have submitted it to Polymer Chemistry anyway.  The journal is publishing really high quality articles and reviews, and we have been very impressed with how our previously published articles were dealt with.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

The ACS National Meeting at Denver, where I will be talking about our work described in a previous article in Polymer Chemistry…  I am running a symposium on Porous Polymers in the PMSE program.

How do you spend your spare time?

I travel quite a lot so I spend all my free time with my family.  My son and I are training in karate, we’re both at 5th Kyu (blue belt) grade at the moment.  My hope is that we will take our black belt gradings together, so long as he doesn’t get there first!

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

I can’t think of anything that I would rather be doing – at least, nothing that I could get paid for!

Brent Sumerlin is Harold Jeskey Trustee Associate Professor in Department of Chemistry at Southern Methodist University. His research group focuses on well-defined polymeric materials with selected functionality, composition, and molecular architecture.  Their particular interest is on polymers that are water-soluble and stimuli-responsive. Such “smart” polymers have the ability to self-assemble or dissociate in solution in response to changes in their surroundings. Potential target applications include controlled and targeted drug delivery, surface modification, and the synthesis of self-healing materials. Their further interests are at the interface of bio-, organic, and polymer chemistry, with particular focus on fusing the fields to prepare materials with synergistic properties. Please follow the link for further information on Brent’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
One of my high school chemistry instructors, Mr. Philip R. Dail, taught with such infectious enthusiasm that it became impossible for me to imagine becoming anything other than a chemist.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?
For the last few years, we have attempted to capitalize on our expertise in the area of water-soluble polymers and controlled polymer synthesis to modify proteins with polymers for potential therapeutic and catalytic applications. Exciting work by several groups has shown that controlled radical polymerization (CRP) is ideal for the preparation of polymer-protein conjugates. In our opinion, one of the most significant qualities of CRP is that it enables the preparation of block copolymers by the sequential polymerization of two monomers. Therefore, we thought it was important to demonstrate the potential of CRP for the direct synthesis of block copolymer-protein conjugates.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
We approach the synthesis of polymer-protein conjugates from the perspective of polymer chemists rather than biochemists. One basic method to demonstrate control during a “living” polymerization process is to investigate the retention of end group functionality by chain extension during a second polymerization. Indeed, we thought any polymerization we conducted by grafting from a protein should be judged by the same criteria that would be applied to controlled polymerizations with more traditional low molecular weight initiators (or chain transfer agents, in the case of RAFT). Therefore, we think these findings are exciting and fundamental polymer chemistry results and that Polymer Chemistry is the ideal venue in which to highlight them.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
I will attend the Polymers Gordon Research Conference at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in June 2011 and the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver, Colorado in August 2011. The results from our recent paper will be presented in Denver in the International Year of Chemistry Symposium: Controlled Radical Polymerization that I am co-organizing with Professors Krzysztof Matyjaszewski (Carnegie Mellon University) and Nicolay Tsarevsky (Southern Methodist University).

How do you spend your spare time?
Generally, I’m happily chauffeuring my two daughters to school, ballet, gymnastics, and birthday parties. If I have time on my own, I enjoy reading.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
I think I would also have enjoyed journalism. I would love the opportunity to travel and cover current events – especially if I were allowed to editorialize!

Christopher Barner-Kowollik is the head of preparative macromolecular chemistry group in the Institute for Technical Chemistry and Polymer Chemistry in Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The main interests of his research group are optimization of existing and novel living/controlled free radical polymerization methods, design of complex macromolecular architectures for variable applications, orthogonal polymer conjugation, surface modification of nano- and micro-objects, kinetics and mechanism of polymerization reactions, high resolution mass spectrometry and multidimensional chromatography on polymer systems. Please follow the link for further information on Christopher’s research group MacroArc and his recent review on Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I only came to chemistry during my last three years of high school in Germany and the US. In the US, I had a fantastic chemistry teacher, who really inspired me – she made chemistry a fun and interesting subject. Since then, the desire to find out what occurs on a molecular level and how it can be put to good use has provided me with continued enjoyment of the subject.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper where you have discussed the role of nitrones in the preparation of functional polymers?

In early 2008, we started a research program – together with my former post-doctoral fellow Dr. Thomas Junkers (who is now a professor) and PhD student Edgar Wong – into the use of nitrones for controlling molecular weight and mid-chain functionalities in free radical polymerization.

In the beginning, we had a completely different application for nitrones in mind, but then came fast to realize that these fascinating spin traps hold significant potential for the facile design of macromolecules, especially in combination with orthogonal ligation protocols. Since, we have come to appreciate the pioneering efforts of other researchers in this field, most notably the groups of Helmut Ritter and Christophe Detrembleur. It was thus quite natural to summarize the current state of the art, collating our work together with the existing material from other groups. The result is the current review, which we hope will inspire others to employ nitrone based macromolecular design. We will continue to further develop nitrone based design techniques and applications well into the future.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Being involved with Polymer Chemistry almost from the beginning, I find it a most vibrant and highly chemistry focused journal that publishes very high quality work. It was thus only natural to place a lot of our best work in the journal.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

In 2011, I will be attending the up-coming polymer conference in Stellenbosch in South Africa, the International Conference on Polymer Colloids in Durham, New Hampshire, as well as the ACS Meeting in Denver.

How do you spend your spare time?

I spend most of my spare time with my wife (who is also a polymer chemist) and two children playing, travelling and doing things that we enjoy as a family. If some time remains, I am into jogging as well as sessions of deep-into-the-night-reading of short stories – I love Roald Dahl and his most brilliant wit.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

My other passion – besides chemistry – is history. At the day of my university enrollment, I was still tossing up between chemistry and history. It was a very close call and I often wonder what would have been, had I taken my choice differently. I am fascinated by the work of historians such as Ian Kershaw for their precision analysis of complex past events. History is the one subject I could readily leave chemistry behind for.