Whitney Blocher McTigue (she/her)

Biographical Statement

Whitney earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Clarkson University. Her PhD research focused on using sequence-controlled polypeptide-based complex coacervates to stabilize encapsulated proteins for the thermo-stabilization of vaccines. In her infrequent and scarce free time, she enjoys reading, playing Dungeons and Dragons and learning to play the ocarina. When the weather is nice, she can be found swimming, horseback riding, or simply having fun with her friends outdoors.

Dr. Blocher McTigue successfully defended her PhD dissertation on Encapsulation and Stabilization of Biomolecules on March 18th, 2020. Dr. Blocher McTigue was the fourth PhD student to graduate from the Perry Lab! She has since moved on to a postdoctoral research position in the lab of Prof. Charles Sing in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Blocher McTigue was honored with the 2020 Department of Chemical Engineering Best Dissertation Award!

Dr. Blocher McTigue joined the faculty in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Lehigh University in Fall 2022. Check out the great work that her lab is doing!

Publications

1. W.C. Blocher McTigue, S.L. Perry, "Incorporation of Proteins into Complex Coacervates," Methods in Enzymology, (2021) 646, 277-306. [PDF]
2. X. Mi, W.C. Blocher McTigue, P.U. Joshi, M.K. Bunker, C.L. Heldt, S.L. Perry, "Thermostabilization of Viruses via Complex Coacervation," Biomaterials Science, (2020), 8, 7082-7092. [PDF]

Highlighted in the Biomaterials Science themed collection on Emerging Investigators.
Highlighted in the 2020 Biomaterials Science Most Popular themed collection.

3. W.C. Blocher McTigue, E. Voke, L.W. Chang, S.L. Perry, "The Benefit of Poor Mixing: Kinetics of Coacervation," Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, (2020) 22, 20643-20657. [PDF]
4. W.C. Blocher McTigue, S.L. Perry, "Protein Encapsulation using Complex Coacervates: What Nature has to Teach Us," Small, (2020), 16(27), 1907671. [PDF]
5. W.C. Blocher McTigue, S.L. Perry, "Design Rules for Encapsulating Proteins into Complex Coacervates," Soft Matter, (2019), 15, 3089-3103. [PDF]
6. W.C. Blocher, S.L. Perry, "Biomimetic Complex Coacervate-Based Materials for Biomedicine," WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology, (2017), 9(4), e1442. [PDF]

Honors and Awards