Polymer Chemistry Blog

Gianfranco Pasut is Assistant Professor of “Delivery and Formulation of Biotech Drug” at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova (Italy), since 2006. He received a M.S. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology in 1999 and his PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Padova in 2003 with Prof. Francesco Veronese. In the 2001, he joined for one year the lab of Prof. Irwin Chaiken at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and in 2007 he was “Visiting Scientist” at the School of Pharmacy, University of Reading (UK). His current research interests are focused on using polymers for the delivery of protein and small drugs. Studies have taken into consideration either synthetic or natural polymers such as poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly (2-Ethyl 2-Oxazoline), hyaluronic acid, polyglutamic acid and polysialyc acid. Pasut has developed several protein conjugates and he has also studied new approaches of protein-polymer conjugation by exploiting the enzyme transglutaminase. In the field of drug delivery of small drugs, he investigated new targeted conjugates and conjugates for combination therapy. He has published 45 articles, 11 book chapters and is the inventor of 9 patents.

Website: http://pasutlab.altervista.org/Home.html Contact: gianfranco.pasut@unipd.it

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Chemistry was not my first choice, I simple didn’t know enough about it. When I was at the high School, I was interested in mechanics but a great teacher perfectly introduced me into the fascinating world of chemistry. Those days changed my life because later I decided to study pharmaceutical chemistry at the University, seeking for a possibility to join the potentials of chemistry with the prospect to help people. Later on, during my PhD, Prof. F.M. Veronese guided me into the field of drug delivery where I started my studies with polymers.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

The motivation that fuelled the research study reported in the paper arrived after a discussion with a colleague, who is also a friend (Prof F. Greco, University of Reading, co-authoring the paper). We were discussing about polymer conjugates in drug delivery and the advantages and pitfalls of several approaches. We ended the talk with two considerations, first, polysialic acid has not been studied as drug carrier of an actual small drug and, second, there were not studies comparing systematically the role of the polymer in drug-polymer conjugates. We decided to undertake both investigations at once!

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI:10.1039/C2PY20876H)

Although Polymer Chemistry is a new journal it is already recognized as one of the leading journal in its field and we thought that our paper would fit within the scope of the journal and it would be read by a large audience. Another important point is that we appreciated a lot the papers published in this journal and their quality.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I’ll present at Biotech Conference & Expo 2013, May 12-16, Washington (DC) (http://www.techconnectworld.com/Biotech2013/bio.html) and I am planning to attend the Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting in July.

How do you spend your spare times?

I like to spend my spare time with my wife and our two sons, 2.5 years and 1 month! So you can imagine that now I do not have much free time. We have fun also with our dog, a dachshund called PEG (a proper name for a kind of “long chain” dog!)

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

As mentioned above my first passion was mechanics and still like a lot this matter and especially almost everything that has an engine, so likely I would have been working in this field.

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and an ARC-Future Fellow at the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia)).

Markus Klapper studied chemistry at the University of Mainz and received his PhD in 1990 (Prof. R. C. Schulz) for work on the synthesis and topochemical polymerization of aminodiacetylenes. Soon after, he joined the MPI for Polymer Research and became project leader in the Dept. of Polymer Synthesis (Prof. Klaus Müllen). His research interests are very broad and include new polycondensation and polymerization methods, as well as polymer analogous reactions towards the synthesis of functional polymers and block copolymers. These materials are especially designed for fuel cell applications or for the hydropho­bisation of inorganic nanoparticles. Additionally, he has focused in the recent years on the polymerization of olefins in heterogeneous phase for which he has developed new organic supports and studied their polymerization behavior. Another central topic is the development of non-aqueous emulsions suitable for the polymerization of water-sensitive monomers. In this area he developed new emulsifiers based on for example perfluorinated structures. He published more than 130 papers and filed about 20 patents. He is managing editor of Polymer Bulletin.

Personal Webpage: http://www.mpip-mainz.mpg.de/70027/Dr_Markus_Klapper

Institutes webpage: http://www.mpip-mainz.mpg.de

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

In fact, I had this dream already in school due to an excellent experienced teacher in chemistry! In the seventh grade we did the first experiments and I found this rather fascinating. From that time on there was no doubt for me that chemistry should become my profession.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

This article is a joint work between the group of Ken B. Wagener in Gainesville, Florida and of the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. This work is an excellent example of an international collaboration using synergistic effects from two groups. We combined herein the experience of synthesizing “precise polymers” from Gainesville with our experience in fuel cell membranes and in the polymerization of phosphonated monomers. A highly defined polymer with excellent proton conductivity was the outcome.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI:10.1039/C2PY20886E)

Polymer Chemistry is an excellent journal, being extremely fast, for example, our article became accepted within a very few days.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

The next conference will be in Asilomar in California at a workshop about fuel cells (February, 23-27) and the EPF conference in Pisa in summer (June, 16-21).

How do you spend your spare times?

Mainly with my family, playing with my two children, reading (preferably history books or biographies of political or historical persons) or travelling.

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

I am really happy with my present job. Even when I studied economy for some time in parallel, I found chemistry always fascinating. Perhaps in younger years to become a pilot would have been a real option.

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and an ARC-Future Fellow at the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia)).

Dr. Kai Xiao received his BSc degree in Chemistry from the East China Institute of Technology, MS degree in Material Sciences from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001 and PhD degree in Physical Chemistry from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) in 2004 for his work on organic and molecular electronics under the supervision of Prof. Yunqi Liu and Prof. Daoben Zhu. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate from 2005-2008 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Then he was employed as a research staff scientist at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since 2011, he became a joint faculty of Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of Tennessee at Knoxville. His current research focuses on conjugated polymers, molecular materials, and nanomaterials in optoelectronic device applications.

Details of his research activities can be found at: http://cnms.ornl.gov/contact_us/XIAO_Kai.pdf and http://www.eecs.utk.edu/people/faculty/kxiao.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Actually I have to say I was not very much interested in chemistry in high school. When I was assigned to department of chemical engineering in college, I started to realize the chemistry is a fascinating field and I was attracted by those interesting chemical experiments to synthesize new materials. However, I was not really steeped in the chemistry research until I started my Phd in the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. During that period, the excellent research environment in multi-chemistry fields allows me playing and applying small molecular semiconductors and conducting polymers in low-cost, flexible organic electronics.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article?

Most conducting polymers used in organic electronics utilize organic solvents such as chloroform and chlorobenzene. The toxicity of these solvents to people and the environment complicates and increases the cost of organic electronic device processing, undermining the goal of low-cost approaches towards renewable energy harvesting and storage. Therefore, we synthesized a non-ionic, water-soluble poly(thiophene) (PT) derivative for organic field-effect transistors. We believe that the combination of environment-friendly solvents and solution-based processing for the conducting polymers will open up the new opportunities for true low-cost, flexible, and green organic electronic devices that include OFETs, OPVs and biosensors.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work? (DOI:10.1039/C2PY21020G)

Polymer Chemistry is a very exciting new journal, which is publishing high quality polymer science with a broad audience. It also has a very quick review and publication process.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

2013 MRS spring conference

How do you spend your spare times?

With my family (wife, 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son), playing basketball, Pingpong, and swimming.

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

Probably be a doctor.

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and an ARC-Future Fellow at the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia)).

Prof. Xiangyang Shi graduated with a B.Sc. in chemistry from Henan Normal University, a M.E. in applied chemistry from Beijing Institute of Technology, and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Institute of Photographic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1992, 1995, and 1998, respectively. He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Tsinghua University (1998-2000) in Beijing and Max-Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (2000-2001) in Potsdam, Germany. He then moved to California State University, Los Angeles (2001-2002) as a visiting scholar. From 2002-2008, he worked as a Research Fellow, Research Associate II, Research Investigator, and Research Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He then became a professor of special appointment both in Donghua University and in Shanghai Institutions of High Learning (Eastern Scholar) in 2008. Since 2010, Prof. Shi has also been appointed as an Invited Chair in Nanotechnology at the University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal. Prof. Shi has authored or coauthored more than 145 referred journal articles and 118 technical conference abstracts or proceeding papers, along with 6 invited book chapters and 9 approved patents. His current research interests include dendrimer chemistry and related nanomedicinal applications, in particular cancer diagnosis and therapy. He is also developing nanofiber-based technology with an emphasis on the synthesis and fabrication of bioscaffolding materials in tissue engineering and pharmaceutical applications and the immobilization of reactive nanoparticles within nanofibrous mats for environmental applications.

Research website: http://www3.dhu.edu.cn/rschu/professor/shixiangyang.htm

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I started to love chemistry when I was a high-school student, because chemistry course learning was always able to fullfil my curiosity. With the years, I have been enjoying very much doing research in different disciplines of chemistry, in particular in polymer chemistry, from which I am able to lead a group of students to creat new polymer-based functional materials for various biomedical and environmental applications.

What was the motivation to write your Polymer Chemistry article? (DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20993D)

With the continuation of my research work in the area of dendrimer-based nanomedicine at the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences (headed by Prof. James R. Baker, Jr.), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, our group has been fully involved in the creation of various dendrimer-based nanoparticles for biomedical imaging applications since 2008. In most of our earlier research, generation 5 (G5) poly(amidoamine) dendrimers were used as either templates or stabilizers to create dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles or dendrimer-stabilized gold nanoparticles. The high cost of high generation dendrimers (generation > 4) really limits the practical applications of the formed dendrimer-based organic/inorganic hybrid nanoparticles.

Our group has worked on seeking a new way to create stable dendrimer/gold nanocomposite particles using low generation dendrimers. Fortunately, via a facile hydrothermal approach we are able to generate G2 dendrimer-stablized gold nanoparticles that can be further acetylated to neutralize the positive surface potential of the particles for in vivo computed tomography imaging applications.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry has been recognized as one of the leading journals in the area of polymer science with a high initial impact factor. We therefore thought that it would be an ideal forum for publication of our research.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

At the 245th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, New Orleans, LA, April 7-11, 2013 (http://acs.org/meetings), at the 7th International Coference on Materials for Advanced Technilogies in Singapore, 30 June-5 July, 2013 (http://www.mrs.org.sg/icmat2013/public.asp?page=home.asp), and also at The 2013 International Conference on Advances in Nano Research, COEX, Seoul, South Korea, August 25-28, 2013 (http://anbre.cti3.com/anbre13.htm).

How do you spend your spare times?

In my spare times, my favorite activity is to travel with my family (wife, and two lovely sons, one 10 years old, and the other 8 years old).

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

I would be an accountant.

Cyrille Boyer is a guest web-writer for Polymer Chemistry. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and an ARC-Future Fellow at the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (Australia)).