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.
Congratulations to Yalin Liu on the publication of her paper examining the rheology of salt-driven liquid-to-solid transitions in complex coacervates!
"Rheological Characterization of Liquid-to-Solid Transitions in Bulk Polyelectrolyte Complexes," Y. Liu, B. Momani, H.H. Winter, S.L. Perry, Soft Matter, (2017), (accepted). [PDF]
Congratulations to Brandon Johnston and Cameron Johnston on the publication of their paper on the effect of comb vs. linear architecture on complex coacervation!
"The Effect of Comb Architecture on Complex Coacervation," B.M. Johnston, C. W. Johnston, R. A. Letteri, T.K. Lytle, C.E. Sing, T. Emrick, S.L. Perry, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, (2017), 15, 7630-7642. [PDF]
Welcome to Lila Duran Ruiz, a sophomore in Chemical Engineering who will be working on the incorporation of conjugated polymers into complex coacervates.
Our collaborator, Prof. Charles Sing just published an exciting new paper on the theory of complex coacervation!
"Transfer Matrix Theory of Polymer Complex Coacervation," T.K. Lytle and C.E. Sing, Soft Matter, (2017). [PDF]
Li-Wei Chang gave a fantastic presentation on Sequence and Entropy-based Control of Complex Coacervation at a special PMSE symposium on Polyelectrolytes, Coacervates, Precipitates and Multilayers at the ACS Annual Meeting in Washington DC!
Congratulations to our new Chemical Engineering Colleague Ashish Kulkarni on being named one of C&EN's Talented 12 for 2017!
Congratulations to my good friend and colleague from graduate school Fikile Brushet on being named one of C&EN's Talented 12 for 2017!
Congratulations to Kush Basu, Tyler Carpenter, and Brandon Johnston on having been awarded Research Grants from the Commonwealth Honors College in support of their senior theses!
Congratulations to Savannah Szemethy, Matt Labbe, and Bryan Chua, and on having been awarded Research Assistant Fellowships from the Commonwealth Honors College!
Welcome to Bryanne Zonghi, a rising junior in Chemical Engineering who will be working on particle-based complex coacervates.
Prof. Perry presented on Graphene Microfluidics for Room Temperature Crystallography at the 91st ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium.
Zoey Meng presented both a poster and a presentation on Encapsulating Cargo Using Electrospun Complex Coacervates Fibers at the 91st ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium.
Congratulations to Whitney Blocher on having her review paper formally come out!
"Biomimetic Complex Coacervate-Based Materials for Biomedicine," W.C. Blocher, S.L. Perry, WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology (2017), 9(4), e1442. [PDF]
Prof. Perry presented on Patterning and Molecular Control in Complex Coacervation at the Telluride Science Research Center Workshop on Molecular Engineering of Soft Matter: Spanning Small Molecules to Macromolecules.
Prof. Perry will be tomorrow presenting on Ultra-Low Background Graphene Microfluidics at a workshop on the Emerging Frontiers in Biology using Synchrotron Radiation at the 2017 CHESS User's Meeting. Check it out live on Youtube!
Welcome to Caleb Boucher, a rising junior in Chemical Engineering who will be working on a joint project with the Schiffman Lab on the development of films and fibers from polyelectrolyte complexes.
Congratulations to Tyler Carpenter, who will be working at SWM in Greenfield, MA this summer as a safety engineer!
Congratulations to Shuo Sui, who was named as one of the Spring 2017 Tillwick and Eldridge Teaching Assistant Award winners for his efforts in CHEM-ENG 590E: Microfluidics and Microscale Systems in Materials in Biology!
Congratulations to Adam Murphy, who will be joining OpGen as a Research and Development Associate Engineer after graduation!
Prof. Perry will be presenting on Ultra-Low Background Graphene Microfluidics at a workshop on the Measurement and Interpretation of Diffuse Scattering in X-Ray Diffraction for Macromolecular Crystallography at the NSLS II and CFN Users’ Meeting at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Congratulations to Perry group members Rasmia Shamsi, Christine Davis, Alex Brosseau, Adam Murphy, and Cristina Vieira Robalo, graduating seniors from the class of 2017
Prof. Perry presented on Graphene Microfluidics for Room Temperature Crystallography at the Symposium on Synchrotron-Based Drug Discovery: The Next 25 Years at the APS/CNM Users’ Meeting at Argonne National Laboratory.
Congratulations to Rasmia Shamsi, who will be joining United Technologies after graduation!
Congratulations to Christine Davis, who will be joining Shire Pharmaceuticals after graduation!
Congratulations to Alex Brosseau, who will be joining Mylan Technologies as a Chemist after graduation!
Prof. Perry is one of two people honored this year as Outstanding Teachers in the College of Engineering!
"Complex Coacervation: Chemically Stable Fibers Electrospun from Aqueous Polyelectrolyte Solutions," X. Meng, S.L. Perry, J.D. Schiffman,ACS Macro Letters, (2017), 6, 505-511. [PDF]
"Microfluidics: From Crystallization to Serial Time-Resolved Crystallography," S. Sui, S.L. Perry, Structural Dynamics, (2017) 4(3), 032202. [PDF]
Congratulations to Yalin Liu, Kush Basu, and Rasmia Shamsi on the publication of a paper in collaboration with Prof. Charles Sing!
"Molecular Connectivity and Correlation Effects on Polymer Coacervation," M. Radhakrishna, K. Basu, Y. Liu, R. Shamsi, S.L. Perry, C.E. Sing, Macromolecules, (2017) 50(7), 3030–3037. [PDF]
Welcome to Xi "Ryan" Hao, a junior in Chemical Engineering who will be working on using complex coacervates as oxygen barriers in graphene microfluidics.
Our review article on the Linear Viscoelasticity of Complex Coacervates was just published as part of a special issue of Advances in Colloids and Interface Science on complex coacervation!
Congratulations to our collaborator, Prof. Charles Sing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on having been awarded an NSF CAREER Award on Developing the design rules of charge sequence to inform polymer self-assembly!
Welcome to Matt Labbe, a freshman in Chemical Engineering who will be studying the rheology of complex coacervates.
Welcome to Elizabeth Voke, a freshman in Chemical Engineering who will be working on understanding charge patterning in complex coacervation.
A collaborative paper with Prof. Shelly Peyton on the use of Wikipage-based course textbooks was just published!
"A Student-Created, Open Access, Living Textbook," S. Galarza, S.L. Perry, S. R. Peyton, Chemical Engineering Education, (2017) 51(1), 2-9. [PDF]
Welcome to Rachel Brody, a junior in Biology who will be working on understanding protein encapsulation and stabilization in complex coacervates.
Our joint project with the Klier lab and Camco Corporation to decrease the methanol content in windshield washer fluid was highlighted at UMass-Lowell!
Prof. Perry will be giving a seminar on Nature-Inspired Molecular Engineering of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering at WPI on Wednesday, January 18th.
