Synthesis and Assembly of Biohybrid Polymer Libraries

Compositionally diverse block copolymers have applications in many fields, including drug delivery and protein stabilization. Despite their promising versatility of use, the synthesis of block copolymers remains challenging: being a time intensive process along with problems of incorporating various monomer classes. Our platform uses RAFT polymerization to generate a large library of compositionally diverse polymer blocks and leverages the specificity of DNA hybridization to guide their assembly. Through the synthesis of DNA-polymer conjugates using a wide variety of traditionally incompatible monomer classes, we can generate a diverse set of block copolymers in fewer synthetic steps than most traditional approaches to block copolymer synthesis. Once assembled, these block copolymers are analyzed using size exclusion chromatography and gel electrophoresis. This platform will be tested for use as a stabilizing agent for protein-based therapeutics that suffer from storage and degradation issues.