Our group has a long-standing interest in polymers that mimic naturally occurring sugar polymers found in the body, specifically heparin. Heparin is an important actor in preventing thrombosis and blood clots. In order to probe the role of structure and functional groups in our synthetic polymers we have prepared a range of polyureas. This material set has yielded important information on what structural features are required for effective heparin mimicking. Recently, we have extended these studies into focusing on the materials science aspects of the polymers, specifically by preparing “smart” polymers that possess shape-memory properties. In this presentation I will show we designed heparin-mimicking polymers that possess a tunable glass transition temperature (<i>T</i><sub>g</sub>) and shape-memory behavior close to physiological temperatures.

Making “smarter” heparin-mimicking polymers

249th National Meeting (2015)

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