Biocompatible Polymer Colloids for Bionanotechnology Applications

这项研究方案中的三位主要科学家具有很强的互补性。阿姆斯教授是一名合成聚合物化学家，这意味着他设计和制造长链分子。瑞安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质，特别是纳米尺度。巴塔格里亚教授是一名生物工程师，他利用自己的量化背景为生物科学带来学术上的严谨。在过去的几年里，我们一起工作(通常是成对的，有时是三人一组)，在谢菲尔德大学进行了大量跨学科的科学研究。这种合作的方法使我们能够解决重要的科学问题，以及我们作为个人研究人员无法考虑解决的问题。这一平台赠款将为我们提供机会，使这种精神正规化，并在中期内建立一支世界级的紧密团队。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)来解决重要的生物问题。这一建议得到了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。他的团队已经开发出一种强大的专利配方，能够使用现成的起始材料直接在水中高效地合成具有球形、蠕虫状或泡状(即中空颗粒)形态的生物兼容纳米颗粒。我们目前正在学习可靠地预测最终粒子形态的设计规则，与之前文献中描述的特别合成相比，这正在改变我们的理解。这一新的洞察力将为我们提供一个前所未有的机会来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温度响应凝胶以及高效地将抗体输送到细胞中。我们的工作将包括整合创新的聚合物化学、最先进的表征技术和世界级的生物工程，以在快速发展的生物纳米技术跨学科领域产生范式转变。我们打算与一个由六位著名的国际知名科学家组成的非正式网络进行富有成效的互动，以获取他们的专业知识和仪器，从而从这一平台赠款中获得最大的科学价值。我们的博士后科学家将有机会与我们的合作者一起借调长达三个月的时间学习新技术，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外，我们还打算为我们优秀的博士后科学家提供鼓舞人心的领导和积极的指导，使他们能够实现他们的长期职业目标。所有三位主要科学家都曾与工业公司广泛合作，从世界上最大的化工公司(BASF)到一家单一的员工中小企业。目前的赞助商包括：宝洁、Cytec、BioCompatible、利洁时、联合利华、阿克苏诺贝尔、克罗达、斯科特·贝德、SSL和Vivta。因此，对于我们工作的潜在商业影响，每个调查者都是“外向的”，并且很清楚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，我们的团队处于有利地位，并与各种指定公司有适当的联系(请参阅支持案例)，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，我们亦积极参与各项外展活动，向市民大众宣传我们的研究结果。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.