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.
Mingjun Zhou gave a fabulous talk at the ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium on Polymer-Nanoparticle Complex Coacervates!
Welcome to Veronika Panchenko, a student from HCC who will be joining us to study the potential for using coacervates to sample environmental contaminants!
Best wishes to Yimin Sun, who will be joining WuXi STA as a researcher to work on oligonucleotides!
Welcome to Luke Boudreau, a rising senior who is joining the lab to study how polymer chemistry affects the physical properties of materials made from complex coacervates!
Welcome to Shannon McIntosh, a rising senior who is joining the lab to study sequence effects in complex coacervation!
Josh McGee gave a fantastic keynote address at the Eighth Annual iCons Senior Exposition and Celebration!
Hansen Tjo highlighted his thesis work as part of the panel discussion at the Eighth Annual iCons Senior Exposition and Celebration!
Congratulations to Zoey Meng on the acceptance of her paper looking at the electrospinning of ultra-short polymers in coacervates!
"Electrospinning Fibers from Oligomeric Complex Coacervates: No Chain Entanglements Needed," X. Meng, Y. Du, Y. Liu, E.B. Coughlin, S.L. Perry, J.D. Schiffman, Macromolecules, (2021), 54, 5033-5042. [PDF]
Congratulations to Shuo Sui, Sarthak Saha, Josh McGee, and Jonathan Selway on the acceptance of their paper to use microfluidics to enable crystallographic screening of drug targets, done in collaboration with scientists at Novartis, SLAC, and the APS!
"A Capillary-based Microfluidic Device Enables Primary High-throughput Room-temperature Crystallographic Screening," S. Sui, A. Mulichak, R. Kulathila, J. McGee,‡ D. Filiatreault, S. Saha, A. Cohen, J. Song, H. Hung, J. Selway, C. Kirby, O.K. Shrestha, W. Weihofen, M. Fodor, M. Xu, R. Chopra, S.L. Perry, Journal of Applied Crystallography, (2021), (accepted).
Congratulations to Josh McGee, who just committed to join the PhD program in Biomedical Engineering at Boston University next fall!
Congratulations to Perry Lab alumna Liz Voke having been awarded a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Award!
Prof. Perry had the chance to virtually visit the Department of Chemistry at the University of Santa Cruz today, where she gave a seminar on Molecular Engineering of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials. Thanks to Prof. Alexander Ayzner for the invitation!
Congratulations to Nicholas Bryant on successfully defending his MS thesis on Reverse Engineering and Replicating Fast-Setting Water-Based Coatings Using Complex Coacervates! Nick is the third MS student to graduate from the Perry Lab!
Congratulations to Josh McGee having been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship!
Congratulations to Whitney Blocher McTigue on having been awarded the 2020 Department of Chemical Engineering Best Dissertation Award!
Congratulations to Yimin Sun on successfully defending her MS thesis on Cryptic Materials and Coacervates! Yimin is the second MS student to graduate from the Perry Lab!
Check out the news highlight on Josh McGee and the other Fall 2020 UMass Amherst Rising Researchers!
Whitney Blocher McTigue gave a fantastic talk at the APS March Meetingthis afternoon on Biomacromolecules in Ternary Complex Coacervates!
Welcome to Alexander Lawton, a first year undergraduate who has joined our group to work on the encapsulation of biological molecules in complex coacervation!
Congratulations to Hansen Tjo, who just committed to join the PhD program in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton next fall!
Prof. Perry had the chance to virtually visit the Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University today, where she gave a seminar on Molecular Engineering of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials. Thanks to Prof. Benjamin Schuster for the invitation!
Prof. Perry had the chance to virtually visit the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University today, where she gave a seminar on Molecular Engineering of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials. Thanks to Prof. Mo Jiang for the invitation!
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) 33(4), 1116-1129. [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!
See more news from 2020.
