Precision polymer synthesis

Radical polymerization techniques have gone through an immense development in the preceding decades. These advanced are have enabled applications that were previously outside of synthetic reach. Most importantly, the techniques are simple to apply, and can provide bulk amounts of material.

I take full advantage modern polymerization techniques to create tools for use in materials science, molecular biology, and biomedicine. Rapid synthesis, combined with relevant assays, allows fast identification of the polymer composition and architecture, resulting in a short turnaround in structure-function relationship for the polymers. By choosing composition and architecture carefully, I create materials with the desired properties.

Amphiphilic polymers are characterized by having both hydrophilic pendant groups, and hydrophobic pendant groups. With just the right composition, size, and distribution of monomers, amphiphilic polymers can spontaneously form 2D nanodiscs with lipids. This has applications in the study of membrane proteins, as cells exposed to these polymers will have their lipid bilayer membranes solubilized into discs, with membrane proteins and complexes lodged in the disc.

I aim to expand nanodisc technologies, both in terms of the polymers themselves, and their applications.

Polymers have the capacity to self-assemble into nano- to micron sized structures, and can be chemically modified with immunostimulatory molecules. They can come to resemble infectious agents, or be designed to release drugs upon a given stimulus. They can function as adjuvants in (cancer) vaccines, and serve as decoys for antibodies, redirecting an immune response. These applications can take full advantage of the infinite design-space in polymer chemsitry.

I develop tools aiming at modulating the immune response, by increasing distinct immune cell populations, and repolarizing an immune response to particular antigens.