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 this great article announcing the winners of the University of Illinois Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering alumni awards, including Prof. Perry with the 2023 Young Alumni Achievement Award!
Welcome to Raneem Mokdad, a junior who isjoining the lab to study the effects of hydrogen bonding on complex coacervation!
Welcome to Adhithi Varadarajan, a sophomore who will be joining the lab to study complex coacervate-core micelles in organic solvents!
Welcome to Jacob Belden, a junior who will be joining the lab to study protein encapsulation in complex coacervates!
Welcome to Ethan Rivers, a junior who will be joining the lab to multiphase complex coacervates!
Júlia Bonesso Sabadini will be giving a talk on Confined Polyelectrolyte Complexes in Nanometric Domains: Answers that the Continuous Phase can Give about Nanometric Regime at the 37th Conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society in Naples, Italy.
Congratulations to group alumnus Dr. Li-Wei Chang on having been granted a green card!
Prof. Perry gave a talk on Decoupling the Effects of Charge Density and Hydrophobicity on the Phase Behavior and Viscoelasticity of Complex Coacervates at the International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes in Prague, Czechia.
So excited to announce that our NIH R01 grant on Fixed-Target Platforms for Time-Resolved Crystallography has been funded!!!
Júlia Bonesso Sabadini gave a talk on Can PEO-coacervates micelles undergo structural changes as EO surfactants aggregates? at the International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes in Prague, Czechia.
Welcome to Dr. Sonu Kizhakkepura a new joint postdoc with Prof. Craig Martin's lab! Sonu will be working on detection and purification strategies related to microfluidic mRNA manufacturing.
The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign honored Prof. Perry with the 2023 Young Alumni Achievement Award!
Best wishes to Dr. Priyanka Kaushik and Dr. Pankaj Kumar Pandey as they move forward with the next steps in their careers!
Check out this Spotlight article that Prof. Perry wrote highlighting some awesome work by Ting Xu's lab along with a group of great collaborators!.
"Ensembles of Synthetic Polymers Mimic Biological Fluids," S.L. Perry, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, (2023) 48(9), 746-747. [PDF]
Congratulations to Diwakaran Rathinam Palaniswamy on being awarded a Chemistry-Biology Interface UMass Trainee Fellowship!
Prof. Perry gave a talk on Brushy Nanoparticle Complex Coacervates at the 97th ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium at NC State.
Prof. Perry gave a talk on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the BASF site in Research Triangle Park, NC.
Prof. Perry gave a talk on Exploring the Effects of Osmolytes on Complex Coacervation at the 97th ACS Colloid and Surface Science Symposium at NC State.
Congratulations to Hansen Tjo on the publication of his co-first author manuscript investigating the effect of charge density and surfactant structure on complex coacervation! This awesome collaborative work was done jointly with Prof. Charles Sing and his former PhD student Dr. Jason Madinya, and was also supported by Zoey Meng and Isaac Ramírez Marrero.
"Surface Charge Density and Steric Repulsion in Polyelectrolyte-Surfactant Coacervation," J. Madinya, H. Tjo, X. Meng, I.A. Ramírez Marrero, C.E. Sing, S.L. Perry, Macromolecules, (2023), 56(11), 3973-3988. [PDF]
Congratulations to Tim Wheeler, who will be participating in the internship program at Plug Power this summer!
Yaozu Chen presented a poster on Polymer Chemistry Effects on the Linear Viscoelasticity of Polyelectrolyte Complexes as part of the Spring Polymer Workshop here at UMass.
Jussara Alves Penido presented a poster on her plan to explore PComplex Coacervate Core Micelle in Organic Solvents as part of the Spring Polymer Workshop here at UMass.
Amy Lim presented a poster on the Effect of Copolymer Chemistry on the Material Properties of Multiphase Complex Coacervates as part of the Spring Polymer Workshop here at UMass.
Isaac Ramírez Marrero presented a poster on the Design Rules of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials as part of the Spring Polymer Workshop here at UMass.
Xianci Zeng presented a poster on Exploring the Effects of Osmolytes on Complex Coacervation as part of the Spring Polymer Workshop here at UMass.
Prof. Perry gave a talk on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials as part of the Spring Polymer Workshop here at UMass.
Welcome to Taras Nagornyy, a soon to be rising senior who will be joining the lab to study protein encapsulation in complex coacervates!
Congratulations to Umme Habeeba, who will be participating in the internship program at Impact Nano this summer!
Congratulations to Sarthak Saha on winning a departmental PPG Fellowship to support his next semester of research!
Amy Lim presented her research Investigating the Formation of Multiphase Complex Coacervates at the Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference.
Yaozu Chen presented his research on Protein Crystallization in a Low Voltage Microfluidic Device at the Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference.
Welcome to Jussara Alves Penido, a visiting PhD student from the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil! Jussara is joining us for a year, and will be studying the encapsulation of proteins into coacervate-core micelles in the context of organic solvents.
Congratulations to group alumnus Brandon Johnston on successfully defending his dissertation work on the Development of Dendritic Polymers as a Modular Drug Delivery Platform for Avascular Tissues as part of Prof. Paula Hammond's group at MIT! Brandon is the very first Perry Lab undergraduate to go on to earn a PhD!
Prof. Perry gave a seminar on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials during a visit to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Rhode Island.
Isaac Ramírez Marrero will be presenting his research on the Effect of Copolymer Chemistry on the Material Properties of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the Spring ACS Meeting in Indianapolis, IN!
Congratulations to Yaozu Chen, who will be participating in the internship program at MacDermid this summer!
Congratulations to Sarthak Saha, who was invited to serve as a discussion leader at the 2023 Physics and Chemistry of Microfluidics Gordon Research Seminar!
Congratulations to Rachel Maher, who will be participating a summer REU program on environmental health sciences here at UMass!
Congratulations to Amy Lim, who will be participating in a sustainability-focused REU program at the University of Louisville this summer!
Congratulations to Alistaire Rauch, who will be joining the lab of Prof. Joel Collier in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University as a PhD student in the fall!
Congratulations to Sarthak Saha on the publication of his very first first-author paper! X-ray compatible centrifugal microfluidics are pretty awesome.
"Polymer-based Microfluidic Device for On-chip Counter-diffusive Crystallization and In Situ X-ray Crystallography at Room Temperature," S. Saha, C. Özden, A. Samkutty, S. Russi, A. Cohen, M.M. Stratton, S.L. Perry, Lab on a Chip, (2023), 23, 2075-2090. [PDF]
Dr. Pankaj Pandey gave a talk on Effect of Charge Patterning and Hydrophobicity in Microrheological Properties of Peptide-based Complex Coacervates at the APS March Meeting in Las Vegas, NV.
Prof. Perry gave a talk on Identifying the Glass Transitions and Material Properties of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the APS March Meeting in Las Vegas, NV.
Congratulations to Isaac Ramírez Marrero on having been awarded an ACS Bridge Travel Award to attend the Spring ACS Meeting in Indianapolis, IN!
We are very sad to bid Júlia Bonesso Sabadini goodbye. It has been great having her as a part of our group for the past year, and we look forward to continuing the collaboration with upon her return to Brazil!
Very excited to announce the publication of a new patent with our collaborators from Prof. Craig Martin's lab that Shuo Sui and Prof. Perry contributed to!
"Novel Enzymatic Methods to Generate High Yields of Sequence Specific RNA Oligonucleotides with Extreme Precision," C. Martin, E. Cavac, K.H. Malagodapathiranage, S. Sui, S.L. Perry, Y. Gholamalipour, US Patent No. 11,578,348 B2, Feb. 14, 2023.
Xianci Zeng's G.R.A.S.S. Seminar today on Exploring the Effects of Osmolytes on Complex Coacervation is a sweet way to spend your Valentine's Day!
Congratulations to Luke Boudreau who will be starting work next week as a research technician in the lab of Dr. O. Berk Usta at Massachusetts General Hospital!
Prof. Perry spoke at an ACS Webinar on Designing Polyelectrolyte Coatings: Coacervates, Assemblies, and Complex Materials alongside Prof. Jamie Grunlan from Texas A&M University.
Prof. Perry was elected as one of the next Vice-Chairs for the Gordon Research Conference on Peptide Materials, along with Joel Schneider from the NCI!
Arvind presented a poster on the Molecular Design of Peptide-based Complex Coacervates at the brand new Gordon Research Conference on Peptide Materials.
Prof. Perry presented on Peptide Complex Coacervates for Enhancing the Stability of Proteins and Viruses at the brand new Gordon Research Conference on Peptide Materials.
Check out this news story in the Boston Globe that talks about the success of the Boys and Girls Club, and highlights our own group alum Kat Nilov!
Congratulations to group alumnus Bryan Chua on his new position as a Senior Automation Engineer I at Biogen!
Happy New Year!!! #LlabLlama
See more news from 2022.