Polymer Chemistry Blog

Takuya Yamamoto received his PhD in 2004 from the University of Utah where he worked with Prof. Peter J. Stang.  He joined JST ERATO Aida Nanospace Project as a researcher in 2005.  Since 2008, he has been an assistant professor of the Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology.  He received the Tokyo Tech Young Investigator Engineering Award from Tokyo Institute of technology in 2010, Award for Encouragement of Research in Polymer Science from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan in 2011, and Challenging Research President’s Honorary Award from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2011.  His current research interests include the synthesis and self-assembly of cyclic polymers for the development of functional materials.

For more information, see: http://www.op.titech.ac.jp/lab/tezuka/ytsite/Japanese/Members/yamamoto.html and http://www.op.titech.ac.jp/lab/tezuka/ytsite/English/Members/yamamoto.html

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Many of my relatives are related to scientific professions, and some of them are in chemistry.  Since I was small, I have had opportunity to be exposed to the state-of-the-art technology of the field, which inspired me to pursue my career in chemistry.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00475A)

Cyclic polymers are gaining growing interest due to the distinctiveness from linear and branched counterparts by the absence of chain ends, and their unique properties often rely on the particular topology.  Furthermore, cyclic block copolymers constructed by the combination of incompatible segments may provide novel properties and functions upon self-assembly giving rise to the amplification of “topology effects”.  We previously reported that a micelle formed from a poly(butyl acrylate)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) cyclic amphiphile exhibits significantly enhanced thermal stability in comparison with one from a linear counterpart (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 10251).  This finding is regarded as the first example of an amplified topology effect by a synthetic cyclic polymer upon self-assembly.

To promote further studies on the subject, the development of synthetic process for amphiphilic cyclic polymers is inevitable to provide a variety of cyclic block copolymers having the programmed combination of segment components with narrow PDIs.  In particular, amphiphilic block copolymers with polystyrene segments are of an importance due to their universality and extensive studies on self-assembled structures from linear polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide).  Hence, we expected that relevant cyclic polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) counterparts could provide unique opportunities to reveal novel topology effects upon self-assembly.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

We were invited to write a review in Polymer Chemistry (“Topological polymer chemistry: a cyclic approach toward novel polymer properties and functions”, Polym. Chem. 2011, 2, 1930), which was selected as one of the top ten most-read articles twice.  To publicize more of our research from the journal, we submitted the original paper.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will attend the 61st SPSJ Annual Meeting (May 29-31 in Yokohama, Japan), Warwick 2012 (July 9-12 in Warwick, UK), and the 61st Symposium on Macromolecules, SPSJ (Sept. 19-21 in Nagoya, Japan).

How do you spend your spare times?

I jog on weekends and sometimes hang out with my friends.

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

I haven’t thought much about it.  Probably, an ordinary corporate employee.

Julian Zhu, professor of chemistry at Université de Montréal, obtained his B.Sc. from Nankai University in China and his Ph.D. from McGill University in Canada in 1988.  Having worked as a postdoctoral researcher in France and in Toronto, he started his academic career at Université de Montréal, where he is now a holder of the Canada Research Chair on Polymeric Biomaterials. 

His research interests are in the synthesis and characterization of new polymeric materials that can be used for biomedical and industrial applications.  Examples include new hydrogels for soft tissue replacement, biodegradable polymers for drug delivery systems, dental filling resins and polymeric support materials in combinatorial synthesis in drug discovery. Various advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques including NMR imaging have been used in the characterization of polymers, especially in the study of diffusion of small and macromolecules in polymeric systems. He and his co-workers have also proposed a new physical model of diffusion which has been used successfully in the interpretation of the diffusion phenomenon in polymer gels. He and his research group have made many contributions in soft materials sciences and polymer chemistry. He has co-authored more than 180 research articles published in scientific journals.  He has been invited to give lectures on his research work in international conferences as well as in many research institutions.  He has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship as well as the AstraZeneca Research Award by the Canadian Society for Chemistry. His collaborations with other colleagues in Canada and other countries have been fruitful. Many researchers and students from other countries (including France, Germany, Spain, Romania, Czech Republic, China, India, Chili, Mexico, just to name a few) have made their research stays in his lab.  This further enhanced the research capacity and progress of his group.

The inherently interdisciplinary nature of the research work in Zhu’s group creates many natural links with other established areas of strength at the Université de Montréal, the École Polytechnique, McGill University and several research institutes and hospital research centers in the area. As a result, research in this area will gain increasing international visibility for Université de Montréal in ways that can strengthen its traditional areas of excellence and make it likely that new fields are developed.

He presently directs a group of 11 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.  His group offers a multidisciplinary environment for the training of young researchers in the development of integrated skills in synthesis, structural analysis, and physical characterization.  Students trained in this environment will help provide Canada with the skilled personnel it needs to remain competitive in materials science. For more information, see here: www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/zhuj.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Chemistry offers solutions to the problems encountered to have sustainable economic and technological developments: such as energy shortage, environmental protection, resources, etc. A polymer chemist can help to solve many of these problems. I often tell the students: The public often has the false impression that chemistry caused many problems related to our environment; we need to re-affirm to the public that we chemists are part of the solution to the problems. With new and better chemistry, we can address such problems.

(The real answer: I actually wanted to be a mathematician, but I had a very good score in chemistry for my entrance exam held in China that year and I was assigned to a chemistry department. It happened that Nankai University had a very good chemistry department and I loved chemistry ever since and became a polymer chemist.)

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper?
(DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20168B)

We wanted to use natural compounds to prepare new materials to improve the biocompatibility and bioacceptance of polymers to be used in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Bile acids are natural compounds that are stored in our gallbladder in large quantities and help in the digestion of lipids in our body (and also in most animals). We use bile acids and other biomolecules to make new polymeric materials, study their properties and explore their potential use.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Polymer Chemistry is a new journal with a good visibility in our field. We have published several papers in this journal including an invited review paper.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I attend ACS meetings regularly and will attend the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Chemistry to be held in Calgary in May this year. I was also invited to attend the International Symposium on Polymer Chemistry to be held in Changchun, China in June.

How do you spend your spare times?

I love gardening, and I grow all kinds of vegetables. I bring the over-supplies to my friends, neighbors and students. The only problem for me is that the summer is a bit too short in Canada.

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

I have not given much thought about an alternative profession in life. I always liked to teach and to do research. I may want to be a lawyer, not for the money, but for the sake of a good argument. I may also want to be a linguist or a translator; all the different languages in the world fascinate me.

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)