Conjugation of synthetic polymers to proteins results in materials that are of interest to the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.1,2 If the polymer is water soluble like poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), for example, then the conjugates can exhibit improved pharmacokinetic properties compared to the unmodified biomolecule.3 Other properties such as the response to external stimuli and solubility properties can also be transferred to the protein.4 The resulting materials retain the properties of the polymer resulting in bioconjugates that can respond to changes in temperature and pH or self-assemble into higher order structures. Controlled radical polymerization (CRP) techniques such as nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP),5 atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP),6,7 and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization8,9 have emerged as efficient approaches to synthesize well-defined, telechelic polymer scaffolds. The ability to control the type of functional group on the polymer termini is essential to synthesize multimeric protein-polymer conjugates. These materials are interesting because the conjugates can exhibit the combined activity of different proteins. Multimeric protein-polymer conjugates can result in materials with higher affinity for a cell-surface receptor or target multiple biological pathways or processes.

Synthetic approaches to multimeric protein-polymer conjugates

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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