Equipment Supplement- Prolonged duration and triggered local anesthesia

Boston Children'S Hospital, Boston MA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Summary Many drug delivery systems for prolonged or triggerable local anesthesia are composed of polymers. Polymer molecular weight is a crucial parameter determining polymer function, as well as synthesis. Gel permeation chromatography is the gold standard way to determine molecular weight. GPC will allow us to determine exactly what the products of our syntheses are, whether these are polymers, block polymers, polymer-drug conjugates, polymer modification, and even nanoparticles. (All of these have been studied under the present R35.) GPC is also useful for chemical reaction monitoring in real time to determine whether we obtain the desired product for sustained and/or triggered release systems and to optimize the chemical synthesis routes. GPC is also the standard way to study polymer biodegradation – an important determinant of polymer function in vivo. GPC is a technique that we have frequently used in our research funded by NIGMS. Access to GPC has been a serious bottleneck to our research since there is only one at our institution and it is used for hydrophilic polymers only and is heavily oversubscribed. Using other institutions’ GPC is costly, time consuming (travel), suboptimal for sample stability, and impractical for real time reaction monitoring. We are therefore applying for an administrative supplement to purchase a GPC for our lab.