Targeting proteins using random hetero-oligomer segments

Project Description

Mimicking the amino acid chemistry using acrylic monomers is a promising approach to mimic peptides and proteins. Recent results have shown that the overall hydrophobicity of acrylic polymer segments is a tunable handle to synthesize materials with the intrinsic capability to enhance or inhibit protein function. However, due to the number of available acrylic monomers and readily accessible synthesis methods to tune polymer structure, there is an expansive chemical design space that is challenging to study using conventional synthesis approaches. In this study, we will leverage the capability of high-throughput polymer synthesis to investigate how different monomer combinations and polymer lengths affect the strength of protein-oligomer interactions. The insights gained for this work will enable a highly modular synthesis platform to develop acrylic oligomers as protein function modulators.

Instruments