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 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), (in press). [PDF]
Congratulations to Hansen Tjo on being awarded Best Presentation - Biomolecular at the 2020 Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium!
Congratulations to Josh McGee, who will be participating in an internship this winter with Lyue Pharma.
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!
Congratulations to Hansen Tjo on being awarded the Jack M. Wilson Presidential Scholarship!
Congratulations to Whitney Blocher McTigue on the publication of her new article on the encapsulation and stabilization of viruses in coacervates, done in collaboration with Prof. Caryn Heldt's lab at Michigan Tech!
"Stabilization of Viruses: A Stepping Stone toward Thermostable Vaccines," X. Mi, W.C. Blocher McTigue, P.U. Joshi, M.K. Bunker, C.L. Heldt, S.L. Perry, Biomaterials Science, (2020), (in press). [PDF]
Congratulations to Shuo Sui on the acceptance of his patent on graphene microfluidics!
"Microfluidic Devices and Methods of Manufacture and Use Thereof," S. Sui, Y. Wang, C. Dimitrakopoulos, S.L. Perry, US Patent No. 10,792,657, Oct. 6, 2020.
Congratulations to Alistaire Rauch on being awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Fellowship for Fall 2020!
Congratulations to Hansen Tjo on being awarded a second Commonwealth Honors College Research Grant to support his thesis research!
Congratulations to Josh McGee on being awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Research Grant to support his thesis research!
Yalin Liu's new article on the effect of polymer backbone hydrophobicity on the phase behavior and rheology of complex coacervates has been published!
"Effect of Polymer Chemistry on the Linear Viscoelasticity of Polyelectrolyte Complexes," Y. Liu, C.F. Santa Chalarca, R.N. Carmean, R.A. Olson, J. Madinya, B.S. Sumerlin, C.E. Sing, T. Emrick, S.L. Perry, Macromolecules, (2020), 53(18), 7851-7864. [PDF]
Welcome to Kat Nilov, who is joining us to work on a collaborative project with Prof. Laura Bradley to develop educational content highlighting diverse individuals in Chemical Engineering!
Congratulations to Whitney Blocher McTigue, Elizabeth Voke, and Li-Wei Chang on the publication of their new paper on coacervate kinetics!
"The Benefit of Poor Mixing: Kinetics of Coacervation," W.C. Blocher McTigue, E. Voke, L.W. Chang, S.L. Perry, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, (2020) 22, 20643-20657. [PDF]
Congratulations to Zoey Meng on accepting a postdoctoral position with Prof. Rachel Segalman at the University of California at Santa Barbara!
Congratulations to Sarthak Saha on winning a departmental PPG Fellowship to support the next two semesters of his research!
Congratulations to Whitney Blocher McTigue on accepting a postdoctoral position with Prof. Charles Sing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign!
Check out the meeting report that Prof. Perry helped to write on the Virtual Symposium on Systems Chemistry!
"Complexity Emerges from Chemistry," H.S. Azevedo, S.L. Perry, P.A. Korevaar, D. Das, Nature Chemistry, 2020, 12, 793-794, (invited meeting report). [PDF]
Whitney Blocher McTigue's new methods article on coacervation with proteins has just come out!
"Incorporation of Proteins into Complex Coacervates," W.C. Blocher McTigue, S.L. Perry, Methods in Enzymology, (2020) - in press. [PDF]
Congratulations to Shuo Sui on accepting a postdoctoral position with Prof. Lois Pollack's lab at Cornell!
Prof. Perry was officially granted tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor!
Hansen Tjo gave a great soundbite on his work on polymer-surfactant complex coacervates at the 83rd New England Complex Fluids Meeting!
Congratulations to Elizabeth McDermott, who will be joining the rotation program at Abbvie in Worcester, MA!
Prof. Perry gave a talk today on Designing Phase Separation in Complex Systems as part of the Virtual Symposium on Systems Chemistry to an audience of more than 500 people. Such an amazing opportunity!
Check out Whitney Blocher McTigue's new review article on protein encapsulation and stabilization!
"Protein Encapsulation using Complex Coacervates: What Nature has to Teach Us," W.C. Blocher McTigue, S.L. Perry, Small, (2020), 16(27), 1907671. [PDF]
Congratulations to Devin Rafferty, who will be joining the rotation program at Bristol-Myers Squibb after graduation!
Check out the news highlight on Prof. Perry having received an NSF CAREER Award to stabilize proteins and increase access to vaccines. It was even picked up by the Republican Newspaper in Springfield, MA!
Check out the news story highlighting Elizabeth Voke as a UMass Amherst Rising Researcher!
Prof. Perry is part of a STEM Women’s Interdisciplinary Group who were just awarded an ADVANCE Mutual Mentoring Grant to support research collaboration through plans to help develop “high risk-high reward” research proposals by bringing together disparate scientific groups with overlapping research interests in the area of “Particles and Polymers in Biofilms.”
Congratulations to Elizabeth Voke on having received honorable mention on her NSF Graduate Research Fellowship application!
Congratulations to Elizabeth Voke on having been named a UMass Amherst Rising Researcher!
Next fall, Greg Donovan will be joining the PhD program in Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder!
Next fall, Elizabeth Voke will be joining the PhD program in Chemical Engineering at the University of California Berkeley!
Congratulations to Dr. Whitney Blocher McTigue on successfully defending her PhD dissertation on Encapsulation and Stabilization of Biomolecules! Dr. Blocher McTigue is the fourth PhD student to graduate from the Perry Lab!
Best wishes to Dr. Li-Wei Chang as he moves on to his new position as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Daeyeon Lee at the University of Pennsylvania.
Congratulations to Dr. Shuo Sui on successfully defending his PhD dissertation on Microfluidic Platforms for Advanced Crystallography! Dr. Sui is the third PhD student to graduate from the Perry Lab!
Prof. Perry is one of five engineering faculty members to have been awarded an NSF CAREER Award!!!
Welcome to Xianci Zeng, 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!
Prof. Caryn Heldt and I just heard that our joint R21 NIH grant on Dense Phase Polyelectrolytes to Thermally Stabilize Viral Vaccines was funded!
Check out the fantastic new review by Prof. Perry and Prof. Charles Sing wrote on the science of complex coacervation!
"Recent Progress in the Science of Complex Coacervation," C.E. Sing, S.L. Perry, Soft Matter, (2020), 16, 2885-2914. [PDF]
Check out the new review by Prof. Perry and Prof. Julian McClements wrote on the encapsulation and delivery of bioactive proteins and peptides!
"Recent Advances in Encapsulation, Protection, and Oral Delivery of Bioactive Proteins and Peptides using Colloidal Systems," S.L. Perry, D.J. McClements, Molecules, (2020), 25(5), 1161. [PDF]
Congratulations to Dr. Yalin Liu on successfully defending her PhD dissertation on Designing Material Properties in Polyelectrolyte Complexes! Dr. Liu is the second PhD student to graduate from the Perry Lab!
Congratulations to Dr. Li-Wei Chang on successfully defending his PhD dissertation on Sequence Control in Complex Coacervates! Dr. Chang is the first PhD student to graduate from the Perry Lab!
Prof. Perry just found out that her NSF CAREER Award on Nature-Inspired Strategies for Protein Stabilization was funded!
Best wishes to Dr. Vanda Liadinskaia as she transitions to a new position at the University of Twente! We will all miss you!
Check out the new viewpoint article that Prof. Perry wrote with our collaborator Prof. Charles Sing on the future of sequence controlled polymers!
"100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Opportunities in the Physics of Sequence-Defined Polymers," S.L. Perry, C.E. Sing, ACS Macro Letters, (2020), 9, 216-225. [PDF]
Sarthak Saha gave an excellent talk and poster at the BioXFEL Conference on the topic of X-ray Compatible Microfluidics for Advanced Protein Crystallography!
Congratulations to Zoey Meng on her contributions to a newly published collaborative paper with the Thayumanavan lab!
"Programmable Chemical Switch based on Triggerable Michael Acceptors," J. Zhuang, B. Zhao, X. Meng, J.D. Schiffman, S.L. Perry, R. Vachet, S. Thayumanavan, Chemical Science, (2020), 11, 2103-2111.[PDF]
See more news from 2019.