Synthesis and Properties of Glycopolypeptide Biohybrid Materials

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Timothy Deming of the University of California at Los Angeles will develop strategies for the addition of sugar functionality to peptide based polymers. Sugar functionalized amino acid monomers will be prepared with different chemical linkages for sugar attachment, and methods for efficient polymerization of these monomers into a variety of polypeptide architectures will be developed. The different sugars and linkages employed will be used to control the presentation of biomolecular functionality and to influence the macromolecule's interactions with other polymers and biomolecules. This project will be performed in collaboration with Henning Menzel at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, Helmut Schlaad of the Max-Planck-Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Germany, Sebastien Lecommandoux of the University of Bordeaux, France, and Andreas Heise of the Dublin City University, Ireland. Together, these groups will combine their separate areas of expertise to prepare and study sugar functionalized polypeptides of unprecedented order and hierarchical complexity. The broader impacts involve the development of infrastructure for research and education through the creation of new multilateral international collaborations, the promotion of this growing field via organization of an international symposium on sugar-functionalized polymers, and the promotion of teaching, training and learning of graduate students through this research project and an international exchange of ideas and expertise. This work will expand the repertoire of chemistry that can be used to create new polymers that mimic natural biomaterials. The results of these studies could have many important long term impacts on a variety of applications and industries in which biomimetic polymers are important, including drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and medical diagnostics.