Polymer Chemistry Blog

Heather D. Maynard received a B.S. with Honors in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a M.S. in Materials Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology was awarded in the summer of 2000 for research in the group of Nobel Prize winner Robert Grubbs. She then moved to the laboratory of Jeffrey Hubbell at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), where from 2000-2002 she was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Maynard joined the UCLA faculty as an Assistant Professor in August 2002 as the first Howard Reiss Career Development Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and as a member of the California NanoSystems Institute.  She is now an Associate Professor.  Maynard’s research interests include polymer synthesis, biohybrid materials, surface modification, and nanomedicine.

Please follow the link to get more information about Heather’s group and her recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
I have always been curious about how things work and like solving puzzles. In junior high I took a science class with a terrific teacher that covered physics, chemistry, and biology.  Although I enjoyed all of them, it was chemistry that really sparked my interest.  Even then the idea that I could come to understand the world around me at a molecular level and could create new materials enthralled me. At the age of twelve I decided to be a chemistry professor.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00034A)
One of my main research interests is the synthesis and application of protein-polymer conjugates.  These conjugates are utilized as therapeutics to treat a range of human diseases, so we considered the synthesis and mode of action of known protein therapeutics.  The paper summarizes all of the FDA approved protein-polymer conjugates.  We teamed up with a medical doctor at UCLA to write this review, which describes the synthesis of these materials, as well as the biological activity, administration, and where possible the half-life information.  Since there are many polymer chemists interested in bioconjugates, we anticipated that a concise review of currently used therapeutics would be useful to the community.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
Polymer Chemistry is an exciting new journal by the RSC, and we were pleased to be invited to take part in a themed issue on Polymer Bioconjugates.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
I will attend the International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies in Singapore in June and the American Chemical Society Fall National Meeting in Denver.

How do you spend your spare time?
I enjoy spending time with my family and also like to mountain bike.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
That is a hard question to answer as it is very difficult to imagine myself not a scientist.  Perhaps I would enjoy being an astronaut.

Bert Klumperman is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science in University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Bert is very well known in the Polymer Science field with his studies on understanding the kinetics of radical polymerization reactions. Their research is based on not only mechanistic and kinetic studies but also the synthesis of advanced macromolecular structures for various applications. Please follow the links for further information on Bert’s research group and his current paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
During secondary school I was very much attracted to science topics (mainly mathematics, biology and chemistry). After initial thoughts on studying biology, I decided to go for chemistry and chemical engineering at Twente University (Netherlands). In my current position in Stellenbosch (South Africa) I get many opportunities to collaborate with scientists in Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmacology and the Medical School. I greatly enjoy this direction of my research.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00069a)
Throughout my career (initial industrial career at DSM Research, later academic career at Eindhoven University of Technology and Stellenbosch University), poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride) (SMA) has always played a big role. It is almost like a red line through my entire career up to this point. In 2009, my colleague Prof Peter Mallon and I supervised a student who worked for a number of weeks on electrospinning of SMA. She showed that there are very interesting possibilities in terms of post-spinning modification. Among the many experiments she tried to immobilize a protein (lysozyme), which seemed to work. In 2010, we continued this work with an Honours student (William Cloete), who immobilized the enzymes described in the paper. In collaboration with a student from Biochemistry (Craig Adriaanse) from the group of Prof Pieter Swart, he carried out the enzyme immobilization and the characterization in terms of enzyme activity. It turned out that such a facile immobilization technique on a solid, high surface area membrane works very well.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
I already had very positive experience with Polymer Chemistry for the publication of an earlier paper. The layout is done very nicely and, in general, they publish high quality work. It will be very interesting to see what their first Impact Factor (IF) is going to be. I would not be surprised if they manage to compete with the very top journals in the field of Polymer Science in terms of IF. For me at least, Polymer Chemistry will remain a serious candidate for publishing my future work.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
After a conference in Turkey (Antalya, LRP’11) in mid-April, and one in my home town Stellenbosch (UNESCO/IUPAC Conference on Macromolecules and Materials) at the end of April, the next one will again be in South Africa. From 22-26 May, I will be in Pretoria to attend the 11th International Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials. After that it will be quiet for a while and I will only attend the ACS National Meeting in Denver (28 August – 1 September), where Prof Kris Matyjaszewski will co-organize the 6th edition of an international symposium on Controlled/Living Radical Polymerization.

How do you spend your spare time?
Ever since I was 10 years old, I have actively played musical instruments. Initially I played the clarinet in a wind orchestra and several smaller bands. When I worked full-time in Eindhoven, I played clarinet in one of the top amateur wind orchestras of the Netherlands (“Koninklijke Harmonie Oefening & Uitspanning” from Beek en Donk) with which I participated in the World Music Contest in Kerkrade (Netherlands) in 1997. Just over 10 years ago, I switched to play the oboe. After a few years of practicing, I started to play the 1st oboe in a small symphony orchestra in Wassenaar (Netherlands), which I did for three years. At that time I had taken up my current position at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), which made it impossible to continue. Currently, I am still taking oboe lessons and at this very moment practicing Mozarts Oboe Quartet in F-major, which I hope to play with a violin, viola and cello in the second half of the year at some informal occasion in Stellenbosch.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
This is the most difficult question to answer. The most obvious answer would be a professional musician, which in actual fact I have considered at some point. However, also several professions in the medical world would be serious candidates.

Dr. Cyrille Boyer received his PhD in polymer chemistry in 2005 from the University of Montpellier II.  His PhD was in collaboration with Solvay-Solexis and devoted to the synthesis of new graft copolymers using grafting “onto” under the supervision of Prof. B. Boutevin and Prof. J.J. Robin. In 2005, he undertook an engineer position with Dupont Performance and Elastomers dealing with the synthesis of original fluorinated elastomers using controlled radical polymerization (e.g., iodine transfer polymerization). In October 2006, he joined the Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) as a senior research fellow under the direction of Prof. Tom Davis. In 2009, he got an Australian Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (ARC). Recently, Dr. Cyrille Boyer has been appointed as a Nanomedicine Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. His research interests mainly cover the preparation of well-defined polymers for drug delivery and imaging applications, protein-polymer conjugates and hybrid organic-inorganic nanoparticles using controlled radical polymerization. He is also working on the preparation of new systems for energy storage using hybrid organic/inorganic nanomaterials. He has co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed research papers, including two book chapters and two international patents.

Please follow the link to get more information about Cyrille’s laboratory and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.What was your inspiration in becoming a chemist?
When I was a child, I was very interested in science, in particular chemistry. With chemistry, it is possible to construct/build complex molecules from basic compounds. It is like playing LEGO at the molecular level. I enjoy the bench work and exploring new types of chemistry. My recent Nanomedicine Lectureship position allows me to use my knowledge in polymer sciences to prepare new nanomaterials for applications in nanomedicine. Currently, I am involved in developing new therapies for neuroblastoma and liver diseases in collaboration with Children’s Cancer Institute Australia and Westmead Millennium Institute.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/c1py00102g)
The star polymer structure presents very interesting properties for bio-applications due to their small size as underlined by the great work of Kris Matyjaszewsky (Carnegie Mellon) and Gregg Qiao (University of Melbourne). However, when I started to work on star polymers, I realized it was very difficult to obtain well-defined star polymers with a very high incorporation of arms using the RAFT process and decided to focus my efforts to optimize this process in collaboration with Dave Haddleton, Mike Whittaker and Tom Davis.  Now with this recent success, we are very excited and will continue our work with the plan to exploit these star polymers for drug/gene delivery and for imaging applications.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
I believe this journal has a huge potential and it will become one of the top journals in polymer science. I was immediately impressed with the high quality papers that appeared in the first edition.

In which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
I am going to Frontiers in Polymer Science at the end of May in Lyon (France), American Chemical Society in Denver at the end of August.  At these conferences, I will be presenting the latest outcomes of this on-going research program into RAFT polymer stars. I am also organising a special “Early Career Researcher” symposium as part of the 2^nd International Nanomedicine Conference to be held in Sydney July 2011 (http://oznanomed.org/). It’s 3 days of great science and I welcome everyone to attend.

How do you spend your spare time?
I like to go to the cinema with friends, and practice sport. When I am on my own I always enjoy a good book.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
I would love to be a wine maker because I like to drink good wine and my family has some experience in the wine industry. My parents operate a vineyard in the area of Avignon (France); “La Bignande Des Clos”. This is still possible and perhaps something I will consider when I will retire…

Didier Gigmes got his education in chemistry at the University Paul Cezanne (Marseille, France). In 1998, he received his PhD in organic chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Paul Tordo (Marseille, France). He completed a first postdoctoral fellowship at Elf-Atochem, North America in Pennsylvania (USA) under the supervision of Dr. Gary Silverman. Then, he came back to France to work as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Paul Tordo in Marseille. In 2001 he obtained a position of researcher at CNRS to develop nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP). In 2008 he defended his Habilitation at the University of Provence and became a group leader in June 2008. In October 2010, he was appointed Research Director at CNRS. During the past few years he has been working on the development of NMP and particularly the design of a highly efficient SG1-based alkoxyamine. After a significant contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms involved in NMP, one of his main concerns is now to promote NMP in material science for various applications such as biomaterials, environment and energy.

Please follow the link to get more information about Didier’s laboratory and his recent paper in Polymer Chemistry.

What was your inspiration in becoming a scientist?
During my education at the University I met two supervisors who strongly influenced my career choices. I can say that working and discussing with Pr. J.-P. Galy and Pr. P. Tordo made me realize the incredible scope of applications of chemistry and that being a scientist is extremely exciting and not so conventional a job.

What was the motivation behind the research in your recent Polymer Chemistry paper? (DOI: 10.1039/C1PY00057H)
I was investigating the potential of the radical reactivity of highly labile alkoxyamines. We discovered that by using this kind of compounds, we were able to perform particularly clean 1,2-intermolecular radical addition onto activated olefins. Then, we exploited this reactivity as an efficient, simple and versatile synthetic tool to prepare advanced polymer materials. I like when ideas are simple to set up.

Why did you choose Polymer Chemistry to publish your work?
I was immediately convinced when I heard about the launch of Polymer Chemistry journal. Obviously, the number of papers in science increases year after year, therefore having different high level journals that offer the possibility to publish scientific achievements of the community is mandatory. I really appreciate Polymer Chemistry for the quality of the contributions and also because it is really professional. The review and publication processes are particularly fast and efficient.

At which upcoming conferences may our readers meet you?
In 2011, I plan to attend the up-coming polymer conference in Granada at European Polymer Congress in July and the ACS Meeting in Denver end August.

How do you spend your spare time?
My spare time is devoted to sport. Playing tennis with my daughters and cycling alone or with friends. It’s good for the shape and also for the mind.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?
I think I would have wanted to become a physician. This is probably why I’m very interested in research studies dealing with the synthesis and the use of polymer materials designed for biomedical applications.