Sumerlin Research Group
     Department of Chemistry, Southern Methodist University
       3215 Daniel Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75275-0314
 
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The Sumerlin Research Group investigates well-defined polymeric materials with selected functionality, composition, and molecular architecture.  Our particular focus is on polymers that are water-soluble and stimuli-responsive. Such "smart" polymers have the ability to self-assemble or dissociate in solution in response to changes in their surroundings. Potential target applications include controlled and targeted drug delivery, surface modification, and the synthesis of self-healing materials. Our interests are at the interface of bio-, organic, and polymer chemistry, with particular focus on fusing the fields to prepare materials with synergistic properties.

Additional information on our research can be found here.

Highlight

Our recent report describes the synthesis and investigation of dynamic-covalent macromolecular stars prepared by reversibly cross-linking boronic acid-containing block copolymers with multifunctional diols.

Journal of the American Chemical Society 2011, 133, 19832. [Link]

 Graphical abstract:

 

Department of Chemistry
Southern Methodist University
3215 Daniel Avenue
PO Box 750314
Dallas, TX 75275-0314

PH: (214) 768-8802
FX: (214) 768-4089
Email: -bsumerlin@smu.edu-

News & Presentations
 Previous Items
08/21/12 Brent delivered two invited oral presentations at the National Meeting of the ACS in Philadelphia, PA.
08/01/12 The Sumerlin Research Group has moved to the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida. We will be part of the George & Josephine Butler Polymer Research Laboratory and the Center for Macromolecular Science and Engineering.
07/11/12 Brent delivered an invited oral presentation at the Warwick Polymer Chemistry Conference at the University of Warwick in Coventry, U.K.
07/03/12 Brent delivered an invited oral presentation at the 3rd International Nanomedicine Conference in Sydney, Australia.
07/01/12 Brent is now an Associate Editor of Polymer Chemistry.
06/25/12 Brent delivered two invited oral presentations at the World Polymer Conference – IUPAC Macro 2012 in Blacksburg, VA.
05/20/12 Brent delivered an oral presentation at the Gordon Research Conference on Biointerfaces in Les Diablerets, Switzerland.
05/10/12 The special issue of Macromolecular Rapid Communications co-edited by Brent, Jean-Francois Lutz, and Shiyong Liu is now available online. Polymer Science: The Next Generation.
05/08/12 Jennifer and Roy's paper titled “Tuning the Sugar-Response of Boronic Acid Block Copolymers” was accepted to Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry.
04/02/12 Roy's paper titled "Glucose-Sensitivity of Boronic Acid Block Copolymers at Physiological pH" is now available in ACS Macro Letters.
03/27/12 Brent delivered two oral presentations at the National Meeting of the ACS in San Diego, CA.
03/21/12 The two volume Progress in Controlled Radical Polymerization ACS Symposium Series books (Volumes 1100 and 1101) co-edited by Kris Matyjaszewski, Brent Sumerlin, and Nick Tsarevsky are now available online here and here.
02/08/12 Congratulations to former group member Aman Ullah for being named a "rising star" by Grand Challenges Canada.
02/08/12 Brent presented at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.
01/10/12 Brent delivered a seminar at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China.
01/09/12 Brent delivered a seminar at Peking University in Beijing, China.
01/06/12 Brent delivered a seminar at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, China.
01/05/12 Brent delivered a seminar at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
12/08/11 Brent presented at the Evonik Meets Science symposium in Pittsburgh, PA.
12/01/11 Our paper titled "Proteins as Initiators of Controlled Radical Polymerization: Grafting-from via ATRP and RAFT" has been accepted to the first issue of ACS Macro Letters.
12/01/11 Our paper titled "Proteins as Initiators of Controlled Radical Polymerization: Grafting-from via ATRP and RAFT" has been accepted to the first issue of ACS Macro Letters.
11/04/11 Will's paper on microwave-assisted RAFT polymerization was accepted to a special issue of the Israel Journal of Chemistry dedicated to Kris Matyjaszewski's winning the 2011 Wolf Prize.
11/03/11 Abhi's paper on dynamic-covalent macromolecular stars was accepted to JACS.
10/25/11 Megan and Soma's paper covering oxime functionalization of RAFT-generated (co)polymers was accepted to Polymer Chemistry.
10/24/11 Brent presented at the International Symposium on Stumuli-Responsive Materials at USM in Hattiesburg, MS.
09/04/11 Brent was named to the Executive Advisory Board of the Macromolecular Journals of Wiley. A personal statement by Brent, typo and all, is available on Materials View.
09/04/11 Brent presented at the Polymers in Medicine and Biology workshop in Santa Rosa, CA.
09/01/11 Several members of the group attended the national ACS meeting in Denver. Abhi and Jennifer presented posters, with Abhi winning a best poster prize sponsored by Polymer Chemistry. Brent co-organized along with Kris Matyjaszewski and Nick Tsarevsky the 6th symposium on controlled radical polymerization. To our knowledge, it was the biggest symposium of the Denver meeting, with nearly 100 oral presentations and 90 poster presentations.
08/19/11 Jennifer's feature article titled "Biomedical Applications of Boronic Acid Polymers" is now available online in Polymer.
08/15/11 Congrats to Jennifer for being awarded the PMSE Ford Travel Grant to attend the National ACS meeting in Denver!
07/20/11 Jennifer Cambre successfully defended her dissertation. Congrats, Dr. Cambre!
07/10/11 Hongmei's article in Polymer Chemistry was recognized as a Hot Article by the journal. [Link]
07/05/11 Brent was selected to attend the Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium sponsored by the US National Academy of Sciences and held in Bogor, Indonesia.
07/01/11 Brent was selected as an Author of the Week by the journal Polymer Chemistry.
06/11/11 The "Polymer Bioconjugates" themed issue of Polymer Chemistry, guest edited by Brent and Jan van Hest is now available online.
05/13/11 Brent presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick.
05/11/11 Brent presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University.
05/01/11 Hongmei's paper titled “Block Copolymer Conjugates Prepared by Sequentially Grafting from Proteins via RAFT” was among the top ten downloaded papers in Polymer Chemistry during March.
04/26/11 Roy's paper titled "Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Vinyl Ester Block Copolymers by RAFT/MADIX Polymerization" was accepted to Polymer.
03/15/11 Brent attended the High Polymer Research Group in Pott Shrigley, England.
03/01/11 Hongmei's article in Polymer Chemistry titled “Block Copolymer Conjugates Prepared by Sequentially Grafting from Proteins via RAFT” is now available  online.
02/17/11 Congratulations to Abhi and Jennifer for each winning the "Best Poster" prize during the SMU Research Day poster session!
01/29/11 Brent presented in the ACS DFW Local Section Young Investigators Symposium.
01/25/11 Ming's paper titled "Thermoresponsive Block Copolymer–Protein Conjugates Prepared by Grafting-from via RAFT Polymerization" has been featured in a column in Materials Views.
01/20/11 De's paper in Biomacromolecules has been recognized as the second most highly-cited article in the journal over the last three years.
01/11/11 Brent presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology at Northeastern University.
01/07/11 Ming's paper titled "Thermoresponsive Block Copolymer–Protein Conjugates Prepared by Grafting-from via RAFT Polymerization" is now available online in Macromolecular Rapid Communications.
 

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