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Steven Elliott Chemical Engineering Grad Student
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Lipodendrisomes: Co-assembly of
New Comb-Rod Dendritic Block Copolymers with Lipids for Tailored
Functional Vesicles
My project focuses on the study of linear-dendritic comb-rod block
copolymers and their co-assembly with common biological lipid bilayers.
This specific class of copolymer has been shown to self-assemble into
vesicular and micellular structures, and we have found that they also
co-assemble with lipid bilayers to form hybrid systems. In these
systems, the dendritic block may display dense functional groups on a
bilayer surface, or the copolymers may mimic protein channels within a
cell membrane. Once the basic co-assembly behavior is understood, we
hope to functionalize our copolymers to give us control over their
function in lipid membranes.
