Research

The modification of surfaces with polymers is a field that has fascinated chemists and physicists for over half a century due to the unique ability of polymers to control interfacial properties. Indeed, surface modification using polymers has been directly responsible for both the expansion and improvement of existing technologies and the development of new technologies. Of the many different surface modification techniques available, polymer brushes have received considerable attention and they have been used in applications ranging from sensors to smart coatings. To date, polymer brush research and applications have been essentially limited to polymers prepared via living chain growth polymerization techniques involving vinyl-based monomers. However, recently researchers have established a need to develop polymer brushes based on aromatic polymers for application in areas such as tribological coatings, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, and biosensing. This project expands on exciting preliminary work from the Boyes group to conduct a detailed study into the use of substituent effect chain growth condensation for the preparation of functional aromatic polyamide brushes in order to develop a thorough understanding of the factors influencing brush growth, structure, and functionality, in addition to demonstrating the application of these systems in membranes for RO and gas separations.

Over the past several years there has been an explosion in the development of nanomedicine platforms for application in molecular imaging and drug delivery. Nanoscale theranostic systems that incorporate various combinations of molecular targeting ligands, therapeutic agents and diagnostic imaging capabilities are emerging as the next generation of personalized medicines and have the potential to dramatically improve the therapeutic outcome of drug therapy. While there is almost unanimous agreement that these next generation personalized nanomedicines will provide clinically important theranostic devices, they have yet to reach clinical realization. Arguably, the primary reasons limiting application of these devices are poor design and manufacturing techniques. Thus, new nanomedicine platforms must be developed for the successful preparation of nanoscale theranostic devices.
Effective nanoscale theranostic devices must contain an amalgamation of therapeutic agents, imaging capabilities, and surface modifiers, which enhance the biodistribution of the platform. The introduction of all of these factors offers a tremendous advantage over simple immunotargeted drugs, especially in the specific delivery of high concentrations of imaging agent or therapeutic for each targeting ligand. In the Boyes Research Group we aim to develop new nanoscale multifunctional theranostic devices capable of performing each of these functions along with offering multimodal imaging and targeting capabilities.

Polymers are playing an increasingly dominant role as scaffolds for tissue engineering. Polymeric materials demonstrate advantageous properties such as degradability, biocompatibility, ease of processing, and favorable ostenoinductive/osteoconductive properties. While both natural polymers and synthetic polymers (such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA)) have been used as materials for the preparation of scaffolds, synthetic polymers offer more advantages that natural polymers, including better control over the physical properties, more uniform properties, ease of processing, and low immunogenicity. Despite these advantages, most synthetic polymer scaffolds suffer from lack of biofunctionality, poor mechanical properties, and relatively low hydrophilicity, all of which are important in the preparation of an ideal scaffold for bone tissue regeneration.
This project aims to develop amphiphilic PLA-based block copolymers for the preparation of biofunctionalized, biodegradable polymer scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration via coaxial electrospinning. The preparation of well-defined synthetic block copolymers will allow for improved hydrophilicity, the ability to introduce various biofunctional molecules, and potentially enhanced mechanical properties while maintaining all of the inherent advantages of a synthetic polymer for scaffold preparation. The introduction of all of these properties will not only provide a scaffold with an improved physical environment for tissue regeneration but also become an active participant in the tissue neogenesis process.