SEMINAR: Bayliss Seminar Series

Soft core-shell polymeric nanoparticles are an area of great research interest, due to their potential advantages in the sustained and targeted delivery of therapeutic payloads. These systems can offer significant improvements in the temporal and spatial control of drug delivery. In this talk, the development of photoactivated polymerization (PET-RAFT) for the preparation of various polymeric nanoparticles that have been specifically designed to deliver anti-cancer drugs and to image specific tissue, will be discussed. In the first part of this talk, we will present a new polymerization approach, named photoinduced electron transfer - reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (PET-RAFT). This technique used photoredox catalysts for the activation and deactivation of polymerization. Such technique was employed for the preparation of polymeric nanoparticle with different shapes (spherical, nanorod, and vesicle) using a facile one-pot polymerization. These different nanoparticle shapes will be tested to deliver a chemotherapy drug and carbon monoxide for the treatment of breast cancer. We will discuss the importance of the nanoparticle shapes in the delivery of therapeutic molecules. The polymeric shell of these nanomaterials can be designed to conjugate with anti-cancer drugs, and to control their release under specific conditions, such as pH or/and temperature. Finally, I will rapidly mention the use of hybrid inorganic polymeric nanoparticles for the storage of hydrogen. In this part, I will present and discuss on the synthesis of magnesium hydride (MgH2) nanoparticles stabilized and assembled using functional polymer to yield a new generation of nanomaterials with remarkable hydrogen storage properties.