NSF awards $500,000 for development of next generation biomaterials

University of Akron assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering Gang Cheng has been awarded an NSF Career award in the amount of $499,995 to design and study conjugated polymers, which have been widely used for diagnosis, imaging and therapeutic devices in healthcare. However, conventional conjugated polymers are not able to provide all required functions, which include biocompatibility, high conductivity in complex biological systems, sensitivity to environmental stimuli and tunable mechanical property.

The goal of the research is to address key challenges of conjugated polymers for biomedical applications by developing a new, versatile zwitterionic conjugated polyelectrolyte platform. The new biomaterial platform will integrate all essential functions and tunable properties into one material. New conjugated polymers will dramatically improve biocompatibility, controllable antifouling properties, and sensitivity to environmental stimuli via the new structures. 

The proposed work has the potential to provide valuable insights into polymer chemistry and physics of both conjugated and zwitterionic polymers and to foster a new multidisciplinary research area in the field of biomaterials.