Synthesis of Active Protein Polymer Hybrids

Protein polymer hybrids are an important class of materials that are used as catalysts, sensors, and therapeutics. By conjugating polymers to proteins the protein stability and activity can be enhanced under native and non-native conditions. A key challenge to preparing these biohybrid materials is the polymer ligation strategy wherein the polymer can be grafted-from the protein or a preformed polymer grafted-to a protein.  Each method has advantages and drawbacks in this seminar the research into preparing biohybrids using novel synthetic approaches with the grafting-from and grafting-to strategies is highlighted.  Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) and Reversible Addition/Fragmentation Chain Transfer Polymerization (RAFT) are used to prepare biohybrid material with enhanced activates compared to unmodified proteins.