Well-defined branched-chain copolypeptide materials via catalysis

在这个由化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学计划资助的项目中，加州大学洛杉矶分校的蒂莫西·戴明将研究如何在一个反应中利用不同类型的引发化学和聚合催化剂来产生从圆柱状刷子到超支化的支化多肽结构。方法是使用不同的引发化学，不同的单体(N-羧酸酐及其硫衍生物)，以及不同的镍和钴聚合催化剂来控制添加的自由引发剂与连接在单体侧链上的引发剂的相对引发速率。以这种方式，可以通过控制从每种类型的引发点发生的传播量来制备一系列聚合物结构。更广泛的影响包括在加州大学洛杉矶分校推进跨学科生物工程的教学、培训和学习，以及参与招募代表不足的少数族裔攻读STEM高级学位。这项工作将增强我们对如何轻松制备多肽的基本理解，多肽是蛋白质的基本成分，具有不同类型的分支结构。这些研究的结果可能会对以蛋白质为基础的材料的应用产生许多重要的长期影响，包括药物递送、组织工程和其他生物技术领域。

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Timothy Deming of the University of California at Los Angeles will study how to utilize different types of initiation chemistries and polymerization catalysts in one reaction to generate branched polypeptide architectures ranging from cylindrical brush to hyperbranched. The approach is to employ different initiation chemistry, different monomers (N-carboxyanhydrides and their sulfur derivatives), and different nickel and cobalt polymerization catalysts to control the relative initiation rates of the added free initiator versus ones that are tethered to the side chain of the monomer. In this manner, a range of polymer architectures can be prepared by controlling the amount of propagation that occurs from each type of initiating site. The broader impacts involve advancing teaching, training and learning in interdisciplinary bioengineering at UCLA as well as participating in recruiting underrepresented minorities to pursue advanced STEM degrees.This work will enhance our fundamental understanding about how to easily prepare polypeptides, the basic component of proteins, which have different types of branched structures. The results of these studies could have many important long term impacts on applications in which protein-based materials are important, including drug delivery, tissue engineering, and other areas of biotechnology.