New Amphiphilic Dendrimers for Encapsulation and Release

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Functional group organizations using covalent and non-covalent forces play an important role in almost all the biological events. Nature provides fine examples of these with the exquisite functional group organization in proteins. This proposal focuses on the design and synthesis of a new class of dendrimers that are inspired by globular proteins. Like globular proteins, these molecules are facially amphiphilic; i.e. the macromolecules have a hydrophilic exterior and a hydrophobic core. In addition, these molecules have the potential to be switched to a dendrimer with a hydrophobic exterior and hydrophilic core upon change in the environment. Study of the conformational switching processes in these dendrimers could provide valuable information on similar processes that occur in nature. The proposed dendrimers should find use as drug delivery vehicles for tumor cells. Although targeted drug delivery is not a specific goal for this proposal, experiments to obtain the proof-of-principle for the possibility will be investigated.