Congratulations to Jussara and Adhithi on the publication of their new paper on using complex coacervates to stabilize enzymes for use in organic solvent!
"Complex Coacervate Emulsions as a Strategy to Stabilize Enzymes for Catalysis in Organic Solvents," J.A. Penido, S.P. Le, A. Varadarajan, S. Thayumanavan, S.L. Perry, W. Loh, ACS Macro Letters (2026), 15(1), 143-150. [PDF]
Congratulations to Dr. Jussara Alves Penido on successfully defending her PhD dissertation on Expanding the Domain of Polymer Coacervates: Multiphase Systems and Coacervates in Organic Solvents!
Prof. Perry gave an invited talk on Design Rules for Immobilizing Enzymes in Complex Coacervate Droplets for Catalysis in Organic Solvents at the MRS Meeting.
Congratulations to Ethan Rivers, on joining the lab of Prof. Piyush Jain in Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida for his PhD research!
Dr. Alaleh Vaghef-Koodehi presented a poster on Electrokinetic Microfluidic Platform for RNA Purification as part of the Center for Bioactive Delivery Research Symposium.
Dr. Abhik Manna presented a poster on Microfluidic System for Site-specific Labelling of RNA as part of the Center for Bioactive Delivery Research Symposium.
Xianci Zeng presented a poster on Exploring the Mutual Effects of Excipient and Proteins in Complex Coacervation as part of the Center for Bioactive Delivery Research Symposium.
Check out this UMass Engineering News Story about Faviola Villariny-Rosado's WIC Travel Award to attend the AIChE Annual Meeting.
Check out this paper summary by the American Peptide Society on our recent work on sequence and hydrophobicity in complex coacervates!
Check out this UMass Engineering News Story about Vaishnavi Mahankal's best poster award from the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference.
Congratulations to Diwakaran Rathinam Palaniswamy on having been awarded the Eldridge Teaching Assistant Award for his work in CHEM-ENG 535 Microfluidics and Microscale Analysis in Materials and Biology!
Faviola Villariny-Rosado gave both a poster and a talk on Exploring the Electrochemical Properties of Polyelectrolyte Complexes at the AIChE Annual Meeting.
Welcome to Anna Clara Drumond Vilas Boas, a PhD student from PSE who is joining the group to investigate the effect of polymer sequence on polymer-surfactant complex coacervates.
Welcome to Luana Marques Ferreira, a PhD student from PSE who is joining the group to investigate the effect of polymer sequence on polymer-lipid polyelectrolyte complexes for use in separation membranes.
Welcome to Nikhil Mathew Koshy, who is joining the group to investigate the immunogenicity of peptide-based complex coacervates in collaboration with Prof. Ashish Kulkarni.
Prof. Perry gave an invited talk on Thermodynamics and Molecular Engineering of Complex Coacervates at the AIChE Annual Meeting.
Prof. Perry presented on Engineering Peptide-Protein Complex Coacervates: The Interplay Between Sequence, Chemistry, and Encapsulation at the AIChE Annual Meeting.
Check out this UMass Engineering News Story on our new collaborative NSF-funded project with Prof. Charles Sing on Sequence-Driven Assembly in Polyelectrolyte/Surfactant Complex Coacervates!
Xianci Zeng presented a poster on Exploring the Mutual Effects of Excipient and Proteins in Complex Coacervation at the Fall Polymer Event.
Vaishnavi Mahankal presented a poster on Fixed-Target Microfluidic Device for Anaerobic Crystallography at the Fall Polymer Event.
Congratulations to Liz Voke on completing her PhD from UC Berkeley and starting as a Consultant at Bain & Company!
Congratulations to Jacob Belden on starting his career as an Assistant Plant Manager at Maine Standard Biofuels!
Congratulations to Vaishnavi Mahankal on having won the Chung Soo Yoo Best Poster Award at the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference!
Vaishnavi Mahankal presented a poster on Fixed-Target Microfluidic Device for Anaerobic Crystallography at the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference.
Baktha Kannadasan presented a poster on Polymer-based Microfluidic Chips for Time-resolved Serial Crystallography at the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference.
Prof. Perry helped to run a workshop on Crystal Clear Insights: Mastering Protein Crystallization at the Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference.
Congratulations to Faviola Villariny-Rosado on having been awarded a Women in Chemical Engineering (WIC) Travel Award to support her attendance at the 2025 AIChE Annual Meeting!
Prof. Perry gave a seminar on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Penn State.
Our recent paper on "Role of Charge Patterning and Hydrophobicity in Peptide-Based Complex Coacervates" in Biomacromolecules was highlighted as an ACS Editor's Choice article!
Congratulations to Raneem Mokdad, who is starting her career as a chemical engineer as a Laboratory Technician at DuPont!
Prof. Perry presented a keynote lecture on Molecular Engineering Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the 3rd NanoBioNYC Symposium at CUNY ASRC.
Prof. Perry joined the graduate faculty for the UMass Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Materials Science & Engineering.
Check out the awesome news story highlighting the DMREF Award that our group received in collaboration with Prof. Jessica Schiffman, Prof. Charles Sing, Prof. Cecilia Leal, Prof. Viviana Monje, and Jeff Ethier!
Congratulations to Diwakaran Rathinam Palaniswamy on having passed his prospectus!
Prof. Perry gave a seminar on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tufts University.
Welcome to Manu Menezes, junior in Chemical Engineering who is joining us to work on microfluidic methods for purifying RNA!
Welcome to Mohana Bhuvanagiri, sophomore in Chemical Engineering who is joining us to work on microfluidic methods for manufacturing RNA!
Welcome to Kiersten O'Connell, junior in Chemical Engineering who is joining us to work on microfluidic methods for manufacturing RNA!
Congratulations to Arvind, Pankaj, Priyanka, Nick, Shannon, and Raneem on the publication of their new paper on sequence and hydrophobicity effects on the phase behavior and rheology of complex coacervates!
"Role of Charge Patterning and Hydrophobicity in Peptide-Based Complex Coacervates," A. Sathyavageeswaran, P. Kumar Pandey, N. Holmlund, P. Kaushik, S. McIntosh, R. Mokdad, S.L. Perry,Biomacromolecules, (2025), 26(10), 6574–6585. [PDF]
Congratulations to Ethan Eroh, who is starting his career as a chemical engineer as a Process Engineer at Pexco!
Welcome to Dr. Alaleh Vaghef-Koodehi, a new postdoctoral researcher and expert in electrophoretic methods, who is joining the group to work on microfluidic methods for manufacturing and purifying RNA!
Best wishes to Ethan Rivers, who is leaving the group to start his new journey as a PhD student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida!
Welcome back to Jina Lee, who is back after a semester abroad studying in Australia!
Jussara Alves Penido presented on Complex Coacervation as a Strategy to Stabilize Enzymes for Catalysis in Organic Solvent at the 14th International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes in Campinas, Brazil.
Prof. Perry presented a keynote lecture on Design Rules for the Processing and Use of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the 14th International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes in Campinas, Brazil.
Congratulations to Baktha Kannadasan on having been awarded a Chemistry-Biology Interface UMass Trainee Fellowship!
Júlia Bonesso Sabadini presented on Affinity Controls Polyelectrolyte Pair Strength in Complex Coacervates: A Thermodynamic Study at the 14th International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes in Campinas, Brazil.
Arvind Sathyavageeswaran presented on Understanding Sequence Effects in Coacervation and Protein Uptake at the 14th International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes in Campinas, Brazil.
Congratulations to Khiem Le for successfully defending his MS thesis on Development of Automated Infrastructure in Microfluidics for Site-Specific Labeling of RNA (PLOR)!!! Khiem is the fourth MS student to graduate from the Perry lab!
Prof. Perry presented a keynote lecture on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the European Polymer Congress.
Congrats to Adhithi Varadarajan on having been awarded a Commonwealth Honors College Research Grant to support her honors thesis research!
Arvind Sathyavageeswaran gave a great presentation on Designing Peptide-Based Complex Coacervates for Protein Encapsulation at the UMass PSE/CUMIRP Spring Polymer Event!
Xianci Zeng presented a poster on Understanding the Role of Excipients in the Stability of Biological Macromolecules at the UMass PSE/CUMIRP Spring Polymer Event.
Diwakaran Rathinam Palaniswamy presented a poster on Microfluidic System for Continuous-Flow Synthesis of Ultrapure RNA at the UMass PSE/CUMIRP Spring Polymer Event.
Baktha Kannadasan presented a poster on Polymer-based Microfluidic Chips for Time-resolved Serial Crystallography at the UMass PSE/CUMIRP Spring Polymer Event.
Diwakaran Rathinam Palaniswamy gave an oral presentation on our collaborative work on Automated Microfluidic Platform for Transcriptional Site-Specific Labelling of RNA at the 2025 AGTD Annual Meeting.
Dr. Abhik Manna and Diwakaran Rathinam Palaniswamy presented a poster on our collaborative work on Automated Microfluidic Platform for Transcriptional Site-Specific Labelling of RNA at the 2025 AGTD Annual Meeting.
Congratulations to our DMREF collaborators on the publication of our new paper, including being highlighted on the journal cover!!!
"Towards Stable Biologics: Understanding Co-Excipient Effects on Hydrophobic Interactions and Solvent Network Integrity," J.W.P. Zajac, P. Muralikrishnan, C.L. Heldt, S.L. Perry, S. Sarupria, Mol. Syst. Des. Eng. (2025), 10, 432-446. [PDF]
Welcome to Perry Balisa, a rising junior from Smith College who is joining us to work on X-ray compatible microfluidics!
Congratulations to now Dr. Joshua McGee! He recently defended his dissertation in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University and is now the CSO of his startup company Keylicon Biosciences, working on self-amplifying RNA to unlock new vaccines and therapies.
Congrats to Adhithi Varadarajan, who will be working this summer as an intern at the PM Group doing process design!
Welcome to Hannah Bannish, a rising junior who will be joining us in the fall to investigate the matereial and electrochemical properties of bio-derived complex coacervates!
Welcome to Rayyan Khan, a rising senior who will be joining us this summer to investigate the matereial and electrochemical properties of complex coacervates!
Congratulations to Jussara Alves Penido on the publication of her paper on phase behavior in surfactant-polymer complex coacervates!
"Miscibility and Phase Behavior in Bulk and Micellar Systems of Surfactant-Polymer Coacervate Mixtures," J. Alves Penido, W. Loh, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, (2025) - ASAP. [PDF]
Congratulations to Xianci Zeng and Alex Lawton on the publication of their paper on excipient effects on complex coacervation!
"Exploring the Effects of Excipients on Complex Coacervation," X. Zeng, P.U. Joshi, A. Lawton, L. Manchester, C.L. Heldt, S.L. Perry, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, (2025), 695, 137808.[PDF]
Congratulations to Dr. Sonu Kizhakkepura, who is starting a new position as an R&D Scientist at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, a multi-national pharmaceutical company headquartered in India!
Congratulations to group alumnus Hansen Tjo, who was just awarded a Tau Beta Pi fellowship in support of his PhD studies at Princeton!
Congratulations to Arvind Sathyavageeswaran on having been awarded a travel grant to help support his attendance at the International Symposium on Polyelectrolytes this summer in Campinas, Brazil!
Congratulations to Khiem Le on having accepted an offer to join the automation company Keynce after graduation!
Congratulations to Ethan Rivers on having accepted an offer to join the PhD program in Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida next year!
Check out this awesome news highlight celebrating Yaozu Chen on being named a 2025 UMass Amherst Rising Researcher!
Congratulations to our wonderful collaborator Prof. Charles Sing on having been awarded the AIChE Owens Corning Early Career Award!
Congratulations to Emily Ng on having accepted an offer to join the PhD program in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware next year!
Júlia Bonesso Sabadini presented her research on Protein Encapsulation in Nanometric Domains: Insights from the Continuous Phase at the APS Global Physics Summit.
Prof. Perry presented on Affinity Controls Polyelectrolyte Pair Strength in Complex Coacervate: A Titration Calorimetry Investigation at the APS Global Physics Summit.
Isaac Ramírez Marrero presented his research on Design Rules and Mechanical Properties of Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the APS Global Physics Summit.
Xianci Zeng presented her research on Understanding the Role of Excipients in the Stability of Biological Macromolecules at the APS Global Physics Summit.
Congratulations to Yaozu Chen on being named a 2025 UMass Amherst Rising Researcher!
Congratulations to Isaac Ramírez Marrero on the publication of his "homopolymer stretchies" paper!
"Brittle-to-Ductile Transitions of Polyelectrolyte Complexes: Humidity, Temperature, and Salt," I.A. Ramírez Marrero, N. Kaiser, B. von Vacano, R. Konradi, A.J. Crosby, S.L. Perry, Macromolecules, (2025), 58(6), 2925-2938. [PDF]
Congratulations to Xianci Zeng and our DMREF collaborators on the publication of our new paper!
"Flipping Out: Role of Arginine in Hydrophobic Interactions and Biological Formulation Design," J.W.P. Zajac, P. Muralikrishnan, I. Tohidan, X. Zeng, C.L. Heldt, S.L. Perry, S. Sarupria, Chemical Science (2025), 16, 6780-6792. [PDF]
Prof. Perry gave an invited talk on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials at the New England Complex Fluids Meeting hosted by Yimin Luo at Yale University.
Prof. Perry gave a seminar on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Missouri S&T.
Congratulations to Júlia Bonesso Sabadini on winning a travel award to attend the DPOLY Short Course on The Physics of Charged and Ion-Containing Polymers!
Welcome to Dr. Abhik Manna, who is joining us to work on microfluidic platforms for mRNA manufacture!
Congratulations to our collaborators in the Schiffman Lab, along with Dr. Pankaj Pandey on the publication of their new paper!
"Electrospinning of Self-Assembling Oligopeptides into Nanofiber Mats: Impacts of Peptide Composition and End-groups," P. Rathore, B. Montz, S.H. Hung, P.K. Pandey, S.L. Perry, T. Emrick, J.D. Schiffman, Biomacromolecules (2025), 26(3), 1604-1613. [PDF]
Prof. Perry will be giving a seminar on Polyelectrolyte Complex Materials in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines.
Best wishes to Dr. Isaac Ramírez Marrero as he ends his time with us in the Perry lab and starts his new journey as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working with Prof. Antonia Statt and Prof. Simon Rogers!
Check out this video put together by the NextFlex Women in STEM Education program!
Congratulations to Dr. Sarthak Saha and Yaozu Chen on the publication of their new paper!
"Scalable Fabrication of Array-Type Fixed-Target Device for Automated Room Temperature X-ray Protein Crystallography," S. Saha, Y. Chen, S. Russi, D. Marchany-Rivera, A.E. Cohen, S.L. Perry, Scientific Reports, (2025), 15, 334. [PDF]
Best wishes to Dr. Sarthak Saha as he ends his time here in the Perry lab and starts his new journey as a postdoctoral researcher the lab of Dr. Avanish Mishra at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital!
