Research in the Perry laboratory utilizes self-assembly, molecular design, and microfluidic technologies to generate biomimetic microenvironments to study and enable the implementation of biomolecules to address real-world challenges. Individually, microfluidics represents an enabling technology for high throughput analyses such as the time-resolved structural analysis of enzyme dynamics, while control over molecular interactions in self-assembling polyelectrolyte systems can be used to examine the interplay between biomolecules and the environment. Together, these capabilities can be coupled to generate artificial organelles for use in applications ranging from biochemistry to bioenergetics, biocatalysis, and biomedicine. Furthermore, this work has tremendous pedagogical potential to inspire students to work at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and engineering.
Sarthak Saha will be joining our lab to work on high-throughput microfluidic platforms for protein crystallization and drug discovery. Welcome!
Congratulations to Zoey Meng on the publication of her new paper!
"Electrospinning Cargo-Containing Polyelectrolyte Complex Fibers: Correlating Molecular Interactions to Complex Coacervate Phase Behavior and Fiber Formation," X. Meng, J.D. Schiffman, S.L. Perry, Macromolecules, (2018), 51, 8821-8832. [PDF]
Zoey Meng's G.R.A.S.S. Seminar today on Shifting the Paradigm of Electrospinning: Forming Fibers from Complex Coacervates will be an awesome way to celebrate Mole Day!
Welcome to Jonathan Selway, a sophomore in Biochemistry who will be helping to solve protein crystal structures!
Congratulations to Zoey Meng on passing her prospectus today and officially becoming both a Lab Ninja and a PhD Candidate!
Whitney Blocher McTigue gave a fantastic G.R.A.S.S. Seminar today on Encapsulation and Thermal Stability of Biomacromolecules using Complex Coacervation.
Welcome to Dr. Vanda Liadinskaia, the Perry Lab's first Postdoc! Vanda will be working on a joint project with the Schiffman Lab on trying to use coacervates to make fungicide treatments safer and more robust.
Welcome to Greg Donovan, a junior in Chemical Engineering who will be working on electrospinning complex coacervates.
Whitney Blocher will be giving a talk on Encapsulation and Thermal Stability of Biomacromolecules Using Complex Coacervation at the Biophysics Lunch today in Hasbrouck 409.
Welcome to Elizabeth McDermott, a junior in Chemical Engineering who will be exploring the interactions between proteins and polymer zwitterions.
Congratulations to Whitney Blocher on having been awarded a James Douglas Graduate Fellowship to support the development of improved Matlab training for students in ENGIN 110 and the department!
Prof. Perry gave a plenary talk on Molecular Design of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes in Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Congratulations to Shuo Sui on being awarded an IUCr Travel Grant to attend the 2018 ICCBM Conference in Shanghai China!
Congratulations to Brandon Johnston on the publication of his paper on the synthesis and characterization of zwitterionic analogs of pluronics!
"Synthesis of Zwitterionic Pluronic Mimics," M. Skinner, B.M. Johnston, Y. Liu, R. Selhorst, I. Xenidou, S.L. Perry, T. Emrick, Biomacromolecules, (2018), 19(8), 3377-3389. [PDF]
Congratulations to Svilen Kolev on being awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Honors Research Grant to support his thesis research!
Congratulations to Matt Labbe on being awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Research Assistant Fellowship!
Congratulations to Devin Rafferty on being awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Research Assistant Fellowship!
Congratulations to Hansen Tjo on being awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Research Assistant Fellowship!
Congratulations to Elizabeth Voke on being awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Research Assistant Fellowship!
Congratulations to our 2018 graduating seniors Kush Basu, Tyler Carpenter, Xi (Ryan) Hao, Rebecca Hershman, and Brandon Johnston!
Welcome to Telvin Abariga, a rising junior in Chemical Engineering who will be exploring the potential for using polyelectrolyte complexes as selectively permeable membranes.
Congratulations to Bryan Chua on being named a Grinspoon Entrepreneurial Spirit Awardee for his work related to using drone technology for air quality testing!
This summer Bryan Chua will be involved in a summer internship at Aclarity LLC, a UMass startup company that uses low doses of electricity to rapidly oxidize and reduce water to purify it.
Today Kush Basu, Brandon Johnston, Tyler Carpenter, Bryan Chua, and Hansen Tjo presented at the 24th Massachusetts Statewide Undergraduate Research Conference.
Check out this WGBY Connection Point news story highlighting Bryan Chua's efforts to bring clean water to Puerto Rico!
Welcome to Josh McGee, a rising sophomore in Chemical Engineering who will be working with Shuo Sui on the design and fabrication of X-ray compatible microfluidic devices for protein crystallography.
Welcome to Shari Traiger, a rising sophomore in Biomedical Engineering who will be looking into the encapsulation of proteins into complex coacervates.
Welcome to Abbie Cabral, a rising sophomore in Biomedical Engineering who will be looking into the encapsulation of proteins into complex coacervates.
Congratulations to Robin Zollner on his upcoming summer internship at Metallized Carbon Corporation!
Li-Wei Chang gave a fantastic G.R.A.S.S. Seminar today on Sequence Control of Complex Coacervation.
Congratulations to Savannah Szemethy on her upcoming summer internship at Nyacol Nano Technologies!
Prof. Perry presented a seminar on Microfluidics for Room Temperature Crystallography seminar today at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute.
Congratulations to Xi (Ryan) Hao!!! Ryan will be joining the Macromolecular Science and Engineering PhD program at Virginia Tech this fall!
My last paper from my postdoc work was just published and highlighted on the journal cover!
"Partitioning and Enhanced Self-Assembly of Actin in Polypeptide Coacervates," P.M. McCall, S. Srivastava, S.L. Perry, D.R. Kovar, M.L. Gardel, M.V. Tirrell, Biophysical Journal, (2018), 114(7), 1636-1645. [PDF]
Congratulations to Brandon Johnston!!! Brandon will be joining the Polymers PhD program at MIT this fall!
Congratulations to Bryanne Zonghi and Elizabeth Voke, both of whom were accepted into the Young Scholars Summer Research Program in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder!
Congratulations to Rebecca Hershman!!! She will be starting in the PhD program in Chemical Engineering at Tufts University this fall!
Congratulations to Tyler Carpenter!!! He has accepted a position with the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.!
Best wishes to Rachel Brody as she moves on in her academic career! Rachel will be joining the Markstein Lab in Biology to get a jump start on her graduate research.
Prof. Perry presented on Graphene Microfluidics for Room Temperature Crystallography at the 2018 BioXFEL Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
Congratulations to Shuo Sui on the publication of his new paper, which describes the use of graphene-based electrodes to enable electric field-enhanced protein crystallization and in situ X-ray crystallography!
"A Graphene-based Microfluidic Platform for Electro-crystallization and In Situ X-ray Diffraction," S. Sui, Y. Wang, C. Dimitrakopoulos, S.L. Perry, Crystals, 8(2), (2018). [PDF]
Welcome to Devin Rafferty, a sophomore in Chemical Engineering who will be working with Brandon Johnston on the synthesis and study of architectural effects of complex coacervates.
Welcome to Hansen Tjo, a freshman in Chemical Engineering who will be studying complex coacervation in ternary mixtures of macro-ions.
Congratulations to Li-Wei Chang on an excellent job during his prospectus this afternoon!
Congratulations to Whitney Blocher on having been awarded a portion of this year's Eldridge Teaching Assistant Award for her work in ENGIN 110!
Congratulations to Savannah Szemethy on having been awarded a Research Assistant Fellowship from the Commonwealth Honors College!
Congratulations to Bryan Chua on having been awarded both a Research Assistant Fellowship, and an Honors Research Grant from the Commonwealth Honors College!
Shuo Sui gave a fantastic G.R.A.S.S. Seminar today on Graphene-Integrated Microfluidics for Advanced Crystallography.
Check out the UMass news article highlighting Brandon Johnston as one of six 2017-2018 UMass Amherst Rising Researchers!
Prof. Perry will be giving seminar today in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Hampshire.