Executive Summary : | Synthetic polypeptides, with their similar backbone repeat as proteins, are attractive bioinspired materials for various biological applications due to their easy chemical synthesis, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. The development of amino acid-based acryl polymers, with living/controlled polymerization techniques like RAFT and ATRP, is also being explored. These water-soluble polymeric systems with stimuli-responsiveness can be used for advanced materials in biomedical fields, such as drug/gene delivery, biosensors, and antifouling applications. This proposal aims to design side-chain functionalized α-amino acid NCA monomers, which upon ROP produce ionic polypeptides or intermediate systems susceptible for post-modification to ionically functionalized polypeptides. The research also aims to design amino acid-based acryl/styryl monomers for obtaining ionic polymers via RAFT polymerization and post-modifications. Both types of polymers are expected to be soluble in water. The study will focus on the stimuli-responsiveness of these ionic polypeptides/amino acid-based polymers against different stimuli, mostly in aqueous solutions, using instrument techniques such as turbidimetry, DLS, zeta potentials, and FESEM and TEM. The formed polymer nanostructured morphologies under external stimuli will be examined by FESEM and TEM. Zwitterionic/ionic polymers are recognized for their good antifouling/biofouling property, and these newly-designed ionic polypeptides/amino acid-based polymers will be examined in solution or by attaching them to a substrate against model proteins for possible antifouling coating. The cationic polypeptides and amino acid-based polymers with inherent biocompatibility will be used for binding with DNA/RNA for polyplex formation and introducing them into cells through transfection processes. |