Deep understanding of the enzymatic degradation of synthetic polymers is crucial for the design of biodegradable materials for biomedical applications ranging from advanced drug delivery systems to tissue engineering. There is no doubt that one of the key parameters that govern enzymatic activity is the limited accessibility of the enzyme to its substrates that may be buried inside hydrophobic domains. In this talk, I will demonstrate that PEG-dendron amphiphiles can serve as a great molecular tool for the study of enzymatic hydrolysis of polymeric amphiphiles. Taking advantage of the molecular precision of these hybrids, which emerges from the monodispersity and symmetry of the hydrophobic dendritic block, I will show how precise minor changes of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic blocks can be manifested into tremendous changes in the stability of the micellar assemblies towards enzymatic degradation. The wide range of stabilities, ranging from readily degradable to undegradable micelles, that were obtained highlights the extreme sensitivity of self-assembly and its great role in regulating the accessibility of enzymes to their substrates. Overall, the huge changes in micellar stability due to minor structural changes, points towards the critical roles that self-assembly and polydispersity may play in designing biodegradable polymers.

Molecular precision and enzymatic disassembly of polymeric micelles

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.