Presenter: Sunting Xuan（UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab）
Topic: Polypeptoids: Design, Synthesis, Atomic structure and Biological applications
Time: 9:30 AM, Jan. 7th (Tuesday)
Location: Conference Room G, BLDG 909-1F
Abstract
Can we create a biomaterial that rivals the structural complexity found in nature while possesses facile synthesis, structural controllability and protease resistance? Polypeptoids are a family of non-natural polymers that have received growing attention as a platform to create biomimetic nanomaterials. Polypeptoids are biocompatible, highly structural tunable and controllable, as well as resistant to enzymatic and hydrolytic degradation. These excellent properties allow us to explore its applications as drug carriers, anti-fouling materials and tissue engineering scaffolds. Here I will first show the synthesis of well-defined polypeptoids bearing oligomeric ethylene glycol side chains and their potential use as protein-resistant materials in biomedical and biotechnological fields. Next, I will show a series of triblock copolypeptoids which undergo sol-gel transition at the physiological temperature (37 oC) in water and biological media. The hydrogels can induce chondrogenesis of hACSs, suggesting their potential use as tissue engineering scaffolds. Finally, I will report a family of sequence-defined polypeptoids that form crystalline nanosheets, in which not only individual polymer chains and their relative orientations, but also atoms were directly observed by Cryo-TEM. These atomic-level insights open the door to the design of bioinspired nanomaterials with more precisely controlled structures and properties.
Biography
Sunting Xuan received her B.S. in Chemistry in 2010 from Lanzhou University, where she worked with Prof. Yanfeng Li on the magnetic microspheres coated with functional polymers for lipase immobilization. She then went to Louisiana State University to completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry with Prof. Donghui Zhang, working on design, synthesis and biological applications of polypeptoids. She was also co-supervised by Prof. Graca Vicente working on synthesis of boron-dipyrromethenes (BODIPYs) and their bio-application. After receiving her Ph.D. degree, she moved to Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and UC Berkeley, where she is currently a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Ron Zuckermann and Prof. Nitash Balsara working on the self-assembly and imaging of crystalline sequence-defined polypeptoids.
Contact: Prof. Lichen Yin
Editor：Ming Lu