Abstract

Protein-polymer conjugates are a class of materials widely used as drugs. Covalent attachment of polymer chains to proteins increases therapeutic potential, and can stabilize proteins to environmental stressors. We have utilized controlled radical polymerizations to prepare polymers for site-specific conjugation to proteins, as well as to polymerize from proteins forming conjugates in situ. Both approaches result in conjugates where the protein viability is retained. More recently, we have developed synthetic strategies to produce homo- and hetero-telechelic polymers for reaction with biomolecules. The materials have been utilized to prepare dimeric and star protein conjugates. We are interested in these architectures because conjugate designs that control the number and presentation of proteins could exhibit higher biological activities than the corresponding monomeric conjugates. In this talk, synthetic strategies, methods to stabilize proteins, and application of the resulting conjugates in nanomedicine will be discussed.