Polymer Photovoltaics Featured on JACS editorial

The work by Sankaran Thayumanavan and colleagues at UMass Amherst, with others at the University of California-Riverside, is highlighted in the current issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) for the clever way it mimics Nature's way of harnessing solar energy.

One of Our Recent Publications

Abstract: Nanoscopic vehicles that stably encapsulate drug molecules and release them in response to a specific trigger are of great interest due to implications in therapeutic applications, especially for cancer therapy. For this purpose, we have synthesized highly stable polymeric nanogels, in which the kinetics of guest molecule release can be fine-tuned by control over cross-linking density. The polymer nanogel precursor is based on a random copolymer that contains oligoethyleneglycol (OEG) and pyridyldisulfide (PDS) units as side-chain functionalities. By introducing variations into the precursor polymer, such as molecular weight and the relative percentages of hydrophilic OEG units and hydrophobic PDS functionalities, we have achieved significant control over nanogel size. We show that the noncovalently encapsulated guest molecules can be released in response to a redox trigger, glutathione (GSH). Stability of dye encapsulation inside the nanogels and tunability in the release of guest molecules have been demonstrated through in vitro fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments. We show in vitro doxorubicin delivery into breast cancer cells (MCF-7) with nanogels of different cross-linking density to demonstrate that it plays a key role in the stable encapsulation of hydrophobic drug molecules and the cell-uptake efficiencies.

Ryu, J.-H.; Chacko, R.; Jiwpanich, S.; Bickerton, S.; Babu, R. P.; Thayumanavan, S. “Self-Crosslinked Polymer Nanogels: a Versatile Nanoscopic Drug Delivery Platform" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 17227-17235

ResearchFest 2010

Nagamani Chikkanagari received the Momentiave Performance Materials award in ResearchFest 2010. She presented her work on materials for anhydrous proton transport during the Research Fest.

Tejaswini Kale received a poster award in ResearchFest 2010. She presented her work on materials for photovoltaics during Research Fest.