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.
Check out the new paper by Prof. Alex Ayzner and his group on the associative phase separation of conjugated polyelectrolytes! So excited that we were able to help with the rheology on this work.
"Salt-Induced Associative Phase Separation of π-Conjugated Polyelectrolytes Couples Photophysical and Mechanical Properties," A.R. Johnston, S.L. Perry, A.L. Ayzner, Chemistry of Materials, (2021) (in press). [PDF]
The awesome review that Prof. Perry and Prof. Charles Sing wrote on the science of complex coacervation was just highlighted in the 2020 Soft Matter Most Popular themed collection!!!
"Recent Progress in the Science of Complex Coacervation," C.E. Sing, S.L. Perry, Soft Matter, (2020), 16, 2885-2914. [PDF]
Whitney's paper on the encapsulation and stabilization of viruses in coacervates was just highlighted in the 2020 Biomaterials Science Most Popular themed collection!!!
"Thermostabilization of Viruses via Complex Coacervation," X. Mi, W.C. Blocher McTigue, P.U. Joshi, M.K. Bunker, C.L. Heldt, S.L. Perry, Biomaterials Science, (2020), 8, 7082-7092. [PDF]
Tremendous congratulations to Josh McGee on being named a 2021 UMass Amherst Rising Researcher! This award recognizes exceptional accomplishments of undergraduate students who excel in research, scholarship, and creative activity.
Check out the news story on Josh McGee and Hansen Tjo on their participation in the 2020 Future Leaders in Chemical Engineering Symposium !
Check out the news story on Hansen Tjo on being awarded Best Presentation - Biomolecular at the 2020 Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium!
Check out this news story highlighting the work done by Perry lab alumnus Bryan Chua and Prof. Rachel Walker from the College of Nursing on a portable water purification system.
Congratulations to Nicholas Bryant on having been awarded a Tillwick and Eldridge Teaching Assistant Award for his efforts in Senior Lab this past fall!
Our collaborative work with Prof. Caryn Heldt's lab at Michigan Tech to preserve vaccines without refrigeration was highlighted again!
Welcome to Arvind Sathyavageeswaran, who has joined our group as a new PhD student to study sequence effects in complex coacervation with a goal of encapsulating and stabilizing biologic materials!
Welcome to Isaac Ramírez Marrero, who has joined our group as a new PhD student to study how copolymers can be used to tune the properties of polyelectrolyte complex materials!
Congratulations to Nicholas Sbalbi and Kyle Schoenberg from Prof. Laura Bradley's Group on their fantastic Jellyfish Janus Particle art that won 1st place in the Fall MRS Science as Art competition! So excited to have been able to support this work!
Prof. Perry presented on Mapping the Phase Space of Protein Encapsulation via Complex Coacervation as part of a special symposium on Lessons from Nature—From Biology to Bioinspired Materials as part of the 2020 Virtual MRS Fall Meeting.
Congratulations to Shuo Sui, whose collaborative paper with Dr. Ricardo Padua and the other members of Prof. Dorothee Kern's lab at Brandeis University was just published ahead of print in Science!
"How Directed Evolution Reshapes Energy Landscapes to Boost Catalysis," R. Otten, R.A.P. Pádua, H.A. Bunzel, V. Nguyen, W. Pitsawong, M. Patterson, S. Sui, S.L. Perry, A. Cohen, D. Hilvert, D. Kern, Science, (2020), 370(6523), 1442-1446. [PDF]
Congratulations to Hansen Tjo on being awarded Best Presentation - Biomolecular at the 2020 Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium!
Check out the video of Hansen's pre-recorded talk on The Role of Charge Density in Polyelectrolyte-Micelle Coacervation from the 2020 AIChE Annual Meeting.
Congratulations to Josh McGee, who will be participating in an internship this winter with Lyue Pharma.
Check out the video of Prof. Perry's talk on Creating Independent Researchers from the 2020 AIChE Annual Meeting.
Check out this news story from Michigan Tech and the related story from UMass on our collaborative research with Prof. Caryn Heldt to try and create temperature stable vaccines!
Congratulations to Dr. Zoey Meng for successfully defending her PhD dissertation on Electrospinning Fibers via Complex Coacervation!!! Dr. Meng is the fifth PhD student to graduate from the Perry lab!
Congratulations to Lila Durán Ruiz! Lila has been pursuing a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada!
Welcome to Dr. Priyanka! Priyanka is a postdoctoral researcher who will be working jointly between our lab and the Schiffman lab on complex coacervation-based strategies to saften fungicides.
Check out the seminar that Prof. Perry and Prof. Charles Sing gave on Thermodynamics and Design of Sequence-Defined Polyelectrolyte Complexes. The event was a joint venture between Georgia Tech and AIChE Academy! The lecture is free to all AIChE members!
See more news from 2020.