The versatility of proteins as functional materials in biological systems makes it desirable to understand and develop ways to control functional group presentation in synthetic macromolecules. The advantage of synthetic custom-designed synthetic systems is that these molecules should be more robust and therefore could be used for a variety of applications. Also, functionalities beyond those available in the twenty amino acids could be incorporated. In addition to the fundamental interests in synthesizing such molecules, these molecules could find use in numerous applications. Examples of applications that are of interest to our group include: controlled release of drug molecules to maintain constant drug levels in the body, tissue engineering to accelerate wound-healing process, and catalysis in the aqueous phase to perform organic synthesis under environmentally benign conditions.

We are using custom-designed amphiphilic dendrimers and polymers as potential biomimetic materials. A dendrimer with diverse set of functional groups displayed on its surface is shown above schematically. Such functional group diversities in macromolecules are rare. We have developed two different synthetic methodologies to achieve such structures.

Among the different strategies that are being taken to cure cancer, chemotherapy is one of the most widely used approaches. However, chemotherapy patients often experience harmful side effects, which are caused by the non-specific toxicities of the drug molecules; i.e. drug molecules indiscriminately attack healthy cells as well as tumor cells. Therefore, the need for drug delivery systems that will reduce such non-specific toxicities is obvious. Two promising approaches are possible to improve the patients’ quality of life. The first possibility involves developing methods of selectively delivering the drug molecules to tumor cells. The second possibility involves delivering chemoprotective agents that will provide relief from the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.

In our group, we are interested in the first approach. We are developing new strategies to selectively deliver chemotherapeutic drug molecules to cancer cells.