Polymer Chemistry Blog

Patrick Stayton currently serves as the Washington Research Foundation Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington.  He received his B.S. in Biology (summa cum laude) from Illinois State University in 1984, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1989, and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, also at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Stayton’s eclectic research group works at the interface of fundamental molecular science and applied molecular bioengineering.  His laboratory has fundamental projects aimed at elucidating the basic principles underlying biomolecular recognition, and connected projects applying these principles to medical applications in the drug delivery, point-of-care diagnostics, and regenerative medicine fields. He has published over 200 scientific papers.  Dr. Stayton has a strong interest in translating the group’s research, has been awarded several patents, and is a co-founder of the startup companies PhaseRx Inc. based on his group’s drug delivery work, and Nexgenia based on their diagnostic work.

Dr. Stayton has been elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and has been the recipient of the Clemson Award from the Society For Biomaterials and the CRS-Cygnus Recognition Award from the Controlled Release Society. He served as Co-Chair of the Gordon Conference on Drug Carriers in Medicine and Biology in 2010.  He has also been awarded the 2009 Faculty Research Innovation Award, UW College of Engineering, a Distinguished Teacher and Mentor Award from the Department of Bioengineering, and an Honorary Award from the College of Engineering’s Minority Science and Engineering Program.

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

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I was always in love with the intersection of biology, chemistry, and physics and found that if you could make macromolecules and engineer their structure and function that you could open up lots of interesting science problems that were connected to translational medical opportunities too.  I guess I  always find my creativity stimulated by these science discipline intersections, the science and technology intersections, the academic and industry intersections, and of course the underlying people intersections of different backgrounds that I find so energizing.  I love how macromolecules and (bio)polymers look, how they work thermodynamically and dynamically, and trying to engineer new ones that have interesting activities.

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

We are very enthused about the idea that polymers might be designed and constructed to have bioactivities connected to delivering biologic drugs to intracellular targets.  This led us to the idea that polymers having pH-dependent, membrane-destabilizing activities might alter the intracellular trafficking of protein antigens in such a way as to promote more cytosolic delivery and entry into the immune pathway connected to cytotoxic T-lymphocyte activation.  It is particularly important that the polymer chemistry field has come up with so many  new ways to make more defined and biofunctionalized polymers and I think we are inspired to see work from around the world that  has so many biomedical ramifications. We tried in this paper to move toward a more defined diblock polymer design to control the architecture of the bioactive portion of the carrier and separate it from the segment containing the vaccine antigen.  We think this will move it to a more realistic and defined polymer-protein vaccine species that could be moved preclinically. However, it must be noted that the activity while good is not yet ideal and there are lots of important challenges and opportunities to do better designs and more active compositions, and of course understand how this intersects with the complex immunology.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

I’ve been very impressed by the startup quality of the papers in the journal, but not so surprised given the high quality of the editors and journal staff, and we were excited to be part of the special issue on polymer bioconjugates.  We will definitely be submitting again.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I should be at the Controlled Release Society annual meeting and the ACS national meeting in the next couple months.

How do you spend your spare time?

I play with my best pal and friend, my 8 year old son, whom I’m glad to say shows all the signs of being a scientist too someday, and then I love to ride bikes and will be up early every morning watching the Tour de France this month– I’ve gone a couple times to watch and ride my bike up some of those mountain passes on the same day as the race, it is an incredible atmosphere and wow are they steep and long, you deserve all the french food and wine after those days….

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

I think I would be a starving artist and writer but the great thing about science is you can still do that on the side and not be quite so starving.

Christophe Detrembleur was born in Verviers (Belgium) in 1974 and he studied chemistry at the University of Liège (Belgium). In March 2001, he obtained his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Robert Jérôme at the Center for Education and Research on Macromolecules (CERM), University of Liège, Belgium. His major research topic was the search for new regulators for the controlled radical polymerisation of (meth)acrylic monomers. In parallel, he also contributed to the development of new functional aliphatic polyesters. He was an invited researcher at IBM, Almaden Research Center, California (USA) under the supervision of Dr. J. Hedrick for three months in 1998. In May 2001, he joined the Research Center of Bayer AG in Leverkusen (Germany), where he worked on materials synthesis and polymer processing. In January 2003, he moved to the polyurethane research division at Bayer, where he was involved in the development of new high performance UV coatings. In October 2003, he was awarded a permanent Research Associate position at CERM under the auspices of the National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS). In October 2008, he was promoted Senior Research Associate by the F.R.S.-FNRS and heads a research team at CERM. His main research projects are in the field of new controlled radical polymerisation techniques, preparation of new polymeric materials by these techniques, and contribution of macromolecular engineering to nanotechnology.

Please follow the link for further information on Christophe Detrembleur’s scientific production and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

I have always been interested in sciences. Fortunately I got a very good chemistry teacher at school who sparked my interest in organic chemistry. It was for me really fascinating to write chemical reactions on a piece of paper and then to build new structures in the lab by mixing molecules in a suitable way. I love(d) reactions that are(were) fuming and that change(d) color!

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00198a)

My research activities have two main facets: (1) developing new tools for the macromolecular engineering mainly by searching for novel ways for controlling the radical polymerizations of difficult monomers, and (2) using the living/controlled polymerization techniques (home-made or not) for designing (nano)materials for advanced applications. The paper published in Polymer Chemistry belongs to the second category and originates from a fruitful collaboration between 6 complementary research teams. Our aim was to combine our different expertise to design new non-toxic MRI contrast agents of high interest in diagnostics. This article combines therefore polymer syntheses, polymer modifications, cytotoxicity tests, relaxometry measurements and CH50 tests (to evaluate the immune response after product injection). Some of our optimized products are actually being tested further… waiting for the results!!

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Although it is a new journal, Polymer Chemistry is already a reference and is well-established in the polymer community. Most of the published articles are of high quality. There is no doubt for me that this journal will be amongst the most important ones in the polymer field. We submitted our article on invitation but we already published several in this journal…and others are in the pipeline!

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will take part in the ACS fall meeting in Denver (USA) at the end of August. I am actually looking for two post-docs. I invite interested candidates that will participate in this meeting to meet me there (session on Controlled Radical Polymerization).

How do you spend your spare time?

Mountain-biking, playing with my son with video games, fishing and home renovation.

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

Fighter pilot.

Marc Hillmyer received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Florida in 1989 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1994. After completing a postdoctoral research position in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science he joined the Chemistry faculty at Minnesota in 1997. He is currently a Distinguished McKnight University Professor of chemistry and leads a research group focused on the synthesis and self-assembly of multifunctional polymers. In addition to his teaching and research responsibilities, Marc also serves as an Associate Editor for the ACS journal Macromolecules and is the director of the Center for Sustainable Polymers at the University of Minnesota.

Please follow the link for further information on Marc Hillmyer’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

Since I’ve been young, I have always been attracted to math and science in school. I really enjoyed lab work in high school and trying to understanding how things worked. The turning point for me with respect to choosing the chemistry path was as a freshman in college. My first chemistry professor was an inspirational lecturer and really sparked my interest in pursing chemistry as a career.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00147g)

We had some success in related isomerization work with seed oils and were curious about application of the same catalytic isomerization chemistry applied to unsaturated polymers. Simple catalytic conversions of renewable polymers can be a powerful approach to new sustainable materials development, and we saw how the conjugation approach using polyisoprene could have some utility. The work was also motivated by recent research in the group on how to toughen polylactide using graft copolymers. Functionalized polyisoprene enabled the preparation of a new set of materials that we hoped had similar (or even better!) properties.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

I am a strong proponent of society journals and feel that Polymer Chemistry is rapidly emerging as an important venue for advances in synthetic polymer chemistry.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

I will be at the IUPAC 2011 World Chemistry Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico this July/August.

How do you spend your spare time?

I do my best to spend most of my spare time with my family. Playing guitar, running, and golf take up the rest!

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

I would be a (paid) musician.

Richard Hoogenboom was born in 1978 in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and studied chemical engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e; Netherlands). In 2005, he obtained his PhD under the supervision of Ulrich S. Schubert (TU/e) and continued working as project leader for the Dutch Polymer Institute. The final two years of this appointment were combined with a part-time position as senior product developer at Dophys Medical BV. After postdoctoral training with Martin Möller at the RWTH Aachen (Humboldt fellowship; 2008-2009) and Roeland J. M. Nolte at the Radboud University Nijmegen (NWO veni-grant; 2009-2010), he was appointed as associate professor at Ghent University mid 2010 where he currently heads a research group on Supramolecular Chemistry. His research interests include stimuli-responsive polymers, supramolecular polymers, and poly(2-oxazoline)s.

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

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?

My decision to study chemical engineering was a trade off between my love for maths, physics and chemistry at high school. In the end I choose a study that combined all these topics. During my studies I was greatly attracted by organic chemistry inspired by the courses given by Bert Meijer and, despite being at a technical university, I ended up graduating in organic and polymer chemistry.

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

The Polymer Chemistry paper reports cloud point tuning of biocompatible poly(2-oxazoline)s by attaching glucose substituents to the side chains via thiol-ene addition. This work was motivated by my interest in developing novel methods for the synthesis of functional poly(2-oxazoline)s as well as my interest in adaptive materials. In addition, the resulting glycopolymers are attractive biomaterials for interaction with sugar-binding proteins, namely lectins. The beauty of this work lies in the unexpected lowering of the water-solubility of the copolymers upon incorporation of hydrophilic sugar moieties. This once more shows how little we actually understand about adaptive materials that are not only governed by hydrophilicity, but also by non-covalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding in this work.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

Despite being a very young journal, in my opinion Polymer Chemistry has already evolved into a well-established polymer journal that is well-recognized by the community. Therefore, publishing our work in Polymer Chemistry ensures wide exposure of our work. In addition, publication in Polymer Chemistry is accompanied by a fast and smooth evaluation and publication process.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?

In September I will attend the APME 2011 (IUPAC 9th International Conference on Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering) in Cappadocia, Turkey.

At the 2012 ACS Spring Meeting in San Diego, CA, I will organize a symposium on ‘Poly(2-oxazoline)s and related pseudo-polypeptide structures’ together with Helmut Schlaad and Scott Grayson, where our just published work on glyco-poly(2-oxazoline)s also will be presented.

How do you spend your spare times?

My spare time is mostly spent with my family. It is great to play with my kids of 1 and 3 years and to see how they discover the world around them. To stay a bit in shape after too much time spend behind a computer in the office, you will find me at least one time a week on the tennis court.

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

This is a very difficult one. I guess I would still be a scientist, but in a different discipline.

Yasuyuki Tezuka is Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology.  He is a graduate of The University of Tokyo, and received his doctorate degree from Ghent University (Belgium) in 1982.  He then joined Nagaoka University of Technology (Japan) as an assistant professor.  In 1994, he moved to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and has been a professor since 2003 in the Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials.  He received Tokyo Tech Award of Best Teacher, 2004, and The Award of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan (2010).  He has served as an Asian Editor of Reactive and Functional Polymers since 2006.  His current research is focused on topological polymer chemistry, in particular on the design of topologically unique macromolecular architectures, and of novel polymer materials by their topology effects.

Please follow the link to get more information of Yasuyuki’s research group and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What attracted you to follow a life-course to become a chemist?

Almost 30 years ago in 1979, I left Tokyo to join in a lab in a Belgian university as a doctorate student.  That time was still good-old-days for university research in Europe.  I was fascinated by and decided to pursue academic course.  Therefore, I was not smart enough to anticipate a rapid change of university researches into a hungry-business.  I feel now, however, that I was lucky to go with chemistry, in particular synthetic polymer chemistry, offering excitement to create something so small and invisible but convincingly proved and eventually testable in macroscopically.  I am also thankful for my respectful mentors to encourage me to follow chemistry as a life-long amusing business.  Thus, I gratefully acknowledge Professors, Teiji Tsuruta, Shohei Inoue and Eric Goethals.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00088H)

A class of macromolecular constructions having single-cyclic (ring) or multi-cyclic polymer units has been a synthetic challenge, though they are regarded geometrically primitive due to their small junction and terminus numbers.  For more than a decade we have been fascinated and involved in a project to make them smartly despite their immediate applications unforeseeable.  In our review in Polymer Chemistry, we have shown recent synthetic breakthroughs and I am happy to include our own, namely an electrostatic self-assembly and covalent conversion (ESA-CF) process among such developments.  Topological Polymer Chemistry has now provided innovative opportunities, not only to bring new insights in the frontier of basic polymer chemistry and physics, but also to disclose unusual properties and functions based on their cyclic topologies, i.e., topology effects, unattainable either by linear or branched counterparts.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?

I am thankful to Prof. Barner-Kowollik, an editorial board member of the journal to offer us a valuable opportunity to summarize recent achievements in Topological Polymer Chemistry.  Also, I am impressed by a variety of competitive measures continuously introduced by the journal, through which this relatively young journal has promoted quickly into the leading position.

In which upcoming opportunities may our readers meet you or catch up your work ?

We are still experiencing prolonging aftermath of rare disasters caused not only by natural but also by human origins.  We are now rebuilding ourselves quickly back to normal university life, to welcome overseas colleagues for scientific visits to us in Tokyo.  Meanwhile, I am now working to edit a book, which hopefully becomes a follow-up of a seminal work of the late Dr. Semlyen (Cyclic Polymers, 2nd Ed).  The title of the Book will be; Topological Polymer Chemistry / The progress in cyclic polymers: Synthesis, Properties and Functions.

How do you spend your spare times?

Taking care of, and hoping to better communicate with B – -, a selfish cat at home, with only occasional success.

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

A teenager, at the student-riot period of 1960-70s in Japan, was likely a follower of such now-passed stars like, Shuji Terayama (an avant-garde artist, as well as a haiku- and tanka-poet writer), Yasujiro Odzu (movie director) in addition to Che Guevara, Leon Trotsky, – –