Polymer Chemistry Blog

Bin Liu received her BSc degree in organic chemistry from Nanjing Universiy and Ph.D.degree in polymer chemistry from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2001. She was a postdoctoral fellow and an assistant researcher from 2001-2005 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She joined the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of NUS as an assistant professor by the end of 2005 and was promoted to associate professor in 2010. Her current research focuses on conjugated polymers in sensing, imaging and optoelectronic device applications.

Details of her research activities can be found at: http://cheed.nus.edu.sg/~cheliub/main.php 

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

My daddy, with a major in French, always had a dream to become a good scientist. He started training me to love science when I was a little girl. I enjoyed reading science books rather than literatures and novels in general. I was always curious about the ways molecules interact to transform into products. I was lucky to be trained as a chemist during undergraduate and graduate studies. I found being a chemist was very rewarding. I’m always delighted to see the impact that a chemist can make on our society by producing new materials and new technologies.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c2py20113E)

My research group has a long-standing interest in developing conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) for sensing and imaging applications. Our recent studies reveal that CPEs have shown high brightness, good photostability and low cytotoxicity, which are promising fluorescent probes for cellular imaging and subcellular protein sensing. It remains a challenge to develop CPEs with high fluorescence quantum yield in the far-red/near infrared (FR/NIR) region. Of equal importance is to develop CPEs with absorption maxima that match the commercial laser excitation sources for maximum performance. The paper reported a simple strategy to design CPEs that simultaneously meet the two challenges by clicking alkyne-PEG-COOH to azide-containing poly(fluorene-co-benzoxadiazole). The terminal –COOH allows further conjugation to peptide for targeted cancer cell imaging. This work represents a simple new strategy to synthesize CPEs, which will open new opportunities to optimize the CPE performance in various applications.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

We always try to balance our publications in different journals from ACS, RSC and Wiley. Polymer chemistry is an exciting new journal which publishes interesting and innovative research related to all aspects of polymers. I also enjoyed the fast review and publication process. The free-of-charge for color Figures is also very attractive.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

International Conference of Young Researchers on Advanced Materials, 2012, 1st – 6th of July, Singapore.

How do you spend your spare time?

Reading, cooking and playing with kids.

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

I would probably be a good chef, taking care of cooking and gardening. Can play some food chemistry too!

(On behalf of Cyrille Boyer)

Dr Kristofer Thurecht graduated from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2005 with a PhD in polymer chemistry. He took up a postdoctoral position in the UK working on polymer synthesis in supercritical CO₂ with Prof. Steve Howdle at Nottingham University. In 2007, Dr Thurecht was simultaneously awarded a Ramsay Centenary Fellowship and 1851 Research Fellowship in the UK. Dr Thurecht returned to Australia in 2008 on an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship. He currently holds a joint position with the Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI) and the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland. His current interests lie in developing polymer architectures for theranostics. He is an ARC Future Fellow.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
When I was in high school I had a fantastic science teacher who set up a lunch-time science club. He encouraged us to do many different experiments across all disciplines of science including biology, chemistry and physics. We made rockets, studied fossils and of course, blew things up! This was what piqued my interest in science and this carried through to University. I think this early excitement with the broader sciences has dictated my career path into polymer chemistry where research now is very much an interdisciplinary field.  

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry Minireview (DOI:10.1039/C2PY20132A)?
Nanomedicine is an extremely dynamic field that bridges various disciplines. One important component of nanomedicine is the ability to diagnose and monitor diseases, and ultimately, probe the efficacy of a treatment/therapy. An integral part of this research is the development of more sensitive molecular imaging agents. Polymers offer obvious advantages for molecular imaging, in particular the ability to control circulation times in vivo, excretion mechanisms as well as allowing the possibility for multi-modal imaging. We are particularly motivated by the exciting development of new hardware that allows dual imaging in a single instrument – advancement of this technology can only be realised by concomitant development of biologically relevant imaging probes. We believe that polymers will (and already do) play a significant role in this field and this inspired us to write the current research article.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
In the two years since its inception, Polymer Chemistry has consistently published high quality articles in the various streams related to polymer research. I thought this was a great forum to describe the evolving application of polymers in molecular imaging. RSC journals also have a very fast publication rate which always is a bonus!

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

• 3rd International Nanomedicine Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 2-4, 2012.
• Warwick2012, Warwick, UK, July 9-12, 2012.
• World Molecular Imaging Congress, Dublin, Ireland, September 5-8, 2012.

How do you spend your spare time?
My spare time is almost always spent with the family. We love camping and fishing in particular, and also spend a lot of time in our vege garden (also a good way to get kids to eat their vegetables!!!!).

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
If I wasn’t a chemist, I would probably have been a veterinarian, or maybe a marine biologist – working on the Barrier Reef every day is somewhat appealing!

(Posted on behalf of Cyrille Boyer)