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SUMMARY:Well-Defined Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polymers: From Multifuncti
 onal Materials to Mucosal Medicine
LOCATION:Chemistry A101
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20260302T160000
UID:2026-05-02-12-37-39@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260502T123739
Description:Seminar Abstract:\n\nWe have developed a photopolymerization ro
 ute to well-defined ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) (co)polymers. This 
 photoiniferter polymerization approach reaches molecular weights in excess
  of 107 g/mol with degrees of polymerization above 100\,000. We have obser
 ved that as synthetic polymers reach UHMW\, many of the established relati
 onships that connect chain length to physical and solution properties brea
 k down and enter new regimes. New properties emerge (e.g.\, shape memory)\
 , providing access to materials that blur the line between thermoplastics 
 and thermosets by relying solely on chain entanglement. We have also recen
 tly begun investigating these polymers as mucin-mimetic compounds. Aberran
 t mucin production is associated with various biological phenomena\, inclu
 ding cancer\, inflammation\, and infection. While recent developments in p
 olymer synthesis have shown promise for developing new macromolecules as m
 ucin replacements\, most of these reports rely on designing mucin-mimetic 
 copolymers that resemble the intricate biomolecular structure of these hea
 vily glycosylated UHMW proteins. We have instead developed polymers that d
 iffer significantly from mucins in their structure but behave similarly by
  a careful balance of UHMW backbones with mucoadhesive functionality and h
 ave begun their evaluation for the treatment of a variety of gastrointesti
 nal diseases\, including gut mucosal deficiencies.\n\nSpeaker Bio:\n\nBren
 t Sumerlin is the George Bergen Butler Chair in the Department of Chemistr
 y at the University of Florida. He received his PhD in Polymer Science &am
 p\; Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi under the guidan
 ce of Charles McCormick. After completing his PhD\, Sumerlin worked as a V
 isiting Assistant Professor/Postdoctoral Research Associate at Carnegie Me
 llon University under Krzysztof Matyjaszewski. In 2005\, he took a faculty
  position at Southern Methodist University before moving to the University
  of Florida in 2012. Sumerlin is an associate editor for ACS Macro Letters
  and a Fellow of the ACS\, the RSC\, and the ACS Division of Polymer Chemi
 stry. He has received awards\, including the Mark Scholar Award\, the Alfr
 ed P. Sloan Research Fellowship\, NSF CAREER Award\, ACS Leadership Develo
 pment Award\, Journal of Polymer Science Innovation Award\, Biomacromolecu
 les/Macromolecules Young Investigator Award\, the Hanwha-Total IUPAC Award
 \, and the UF Doctoral Dissertation Mentoring/Advising Award. 4:00 pm
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