Biocompatible Polymer Colloids for Bionanotechnology Applications

该研究方案的三位主要科学家具有高度互补的专门知识。Armes教授是一位合成聚合物化学家，这意味着他设计和制造长链分子。Ryan教授是一位聚合物材料科学家;他的兴趣在于聚合物的结构和性能，特别是在纳米长度尺度上。Battaglia教授是一位生物工程师，他利用自己的定量背景为生物科学带来了学术严谨性。在过去的几年里，我们一起工作（通常是两人一组，有时是三人一组），在谢菲尔德大学进行了许多跨学科的科学研究。这种合作的方法使我们能够解决重要的科学问题和问题，我们不能考虑作为个人研究者解决。这项平台资助将为我们提供机会，使这种精神正式化，并在中期内建立一个世界级的紧密团队。我们的愿景是在基于聚合物的生物纳米技术领域进行变革性研究，我们将其定义为应用合成聚合物（人造长链分子）来解决重要的生物学问题。这一提议得到了Armes教授最近在定制有机纳米颗粒设计方面的重大突破的支持。他的团队开发了一种强大的专利配方，能够使用容易获得的起始材料直接在水中有效合成具有球形，蠕虫状或囊泡状（即中空颗粒）形态的生物相容性纳米颗粒。我们目前正在学习设计规则，以可靠地预测最终的颗粒形态，与文献中描述的先前的特设合成相比，这正在改变我们的理解。这一新的洞察力将为我们提供前所未有的机会，探索各种生物医学应用，包括增强的活细胞成像，用于细胞培养研究的热响应凝胶以及将抗体有效递送到细胞中。我们的工作将涉及创新的聚合物化学，最先进的表征技术和世界一流的生物工程的整合，以产生在生物纳米技术的快速发展的跨学科领域的范式转变。我们打算与六个命名的国际知名科学家的非正式网络进行富有成效的互动，以获得他们的专业知识和仪器，从而从这个平台赠款提取最大的科学价值。我们的博士后科学家将有机会与我们的合作者一起学习新技术，体验其他科学文化并提高他们的技能。最后，除了我们雄心勃勃的科学计划，我们还打算为优秀的博士后科学家提供鼓舞人心的领导和积极的指导，使他们能够实现长期的职业目标。所有三位主要科学家都曾与工业公司广泛合作，从世界上最大的化学公司（巴斯夫）到一家单一员工的中小企业。目前的赞助商包括：P & G、Cytec、Biocompatibles、Reckitt Benckiser、Unilever、AkzoNobel、Croda、Scott Bader、SSL和Vivacta。因此，每个研究者都是“外向型”的，他们关注我们工作的潜在商业影响，并充分意识到知识产权保护的价值（所有人都是多项专利申请的发明人）。因此，我们的团队既处于有利地位，又与各种知名公司有适当的联系（请参阅案例以获得支持），以确保该项目产生的任何新知识产权都将得到充分利用。此外，我们亦积极参与各种外展活动，向公众传达我们的研究结果。这对于向英国纳税人保证对英国大学进行的科学研究保持长期战略投资的重要性至关重要。

The three principal scientists in this research programme have highly complementary expertise. Prof. Armes is a synthetic polymer chemist, which means that he designs and makes long-chain molecules. Prof. Ryan is a polymeric materials scientist; his interests lie in the structure and properties of polymers, particularly on the nanometre length scale. Prof. Battaglia is a bio-engineer, who uses his quantitative background to bring academic rigour to the biological sciences. In the last few years, we have worked together (often as pairs, sometimes as a group of three) to conduct numerous inter-disciplinary scientific studies at Sheffield University. This collaborative approach allows us to tackle important scientific problems and questions that we could not contemplate addressing as individual investigators. This Platform Grant will provide us with the opportunity to formalise this ethos and to build a world-class close-knit team over the medium term. Our vision is to conduct transformative research in the area of polymer-based bionanotechnology, which we define as the application of synthetic polymers (man-made long-chain molecules) to solve important biological problems.This proposal is underpinned by an important breakthrough in the design of bespoke organic nanoparticles recently made by Prof. Armes. His team has developed a robust, patented formulation that enables the efficient synthesis of biocompatible nanoparticles possessing spherical, worm-like or vesicular (i.e. hollow particles) morphologies directly in water using readily available starting materials. We are currently learning the design rules to reliably predict the final particle morphology, which is transforming our understanding compared to the previous ad hoc syntheses described in the literature. This new insight will provide us with an unprecedented opportunity to explore various biomedical applications, including enhanced live cell imaging, thermo-responsive gels for cell culture studies and the efficient delivery of antibodies into cells. Our work will involve the integration of innovative polymer chemistry, state-of-the-art characterisation techniques and world-class bio-engineering to produce a paradigm shift in the fast-moving inter-disciplinary field of bionanotechnology.We intend to interact fruitfully with an informal network of six named internationally-renowned scientists to access their expertise and instrumentation and hence extract maximum scientific value from this Platform grant. Our post-doctoral scientists will be offered the opportunity to spend up to three months on secondment with our collaborators learning new techniques, experiencing other scientific cultures and enhancing their skill sets. Finally, in addition to our ambitious scientific programme, we intend to provide inspirational leadership and active mentoring for our excellent post-doctoral scientists to enable them to attain their long-term career goals.All three principal scientists have worked extensively with industrial companies, ranging from the world's largest chemical company (BASF) to a single employee SME. Current sponsors include: P & G, Cytec, Biocompatibles, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, AkzoNobel, Croda, Scott Bader, SSL and Vivacta. Thus each Investigator is 'outward-facing' regarding the potential commercial impact of our work and is well aware of the value of IP protection (all are named inventors on multiple patent applications). Thus our team is both well-placed and has the appropriate contacts with various named companies (see case for support) to ensure that any new intellectual property resulting from this project will be fully exploited. Moreover, we have also been active in various outreach activities to communicate our findings to the general public. This is essential to assure the UK tax-payer of the importance of maintaining a long-term strategic investment in scientific research conducted in UK Universities.