11:00-12:00
Weds 28 June, 2023

PLT

Prof Lecommandoux joins us to deliver this Materials and Polymers Lectureship Award departmental seminar. All welcome. Refreshment will be served from10:45. Please come along.

"Biomimetic polymersomes as smart functional therapeutics and protocells"

Abstract

Our scientific approach is based on biomimicry, as we engineer synthetic mimics of natural macromolecules (such as proteins or glycoproteins), and explore their controlled and tunable self-assembly to form self-assembled structures similar to those found in nature (such as virus or cell membranes). In this context, we develop polymer-based self-assembled nanoparticles, mostly polymeric vesicles, also named polymersomes, with high loading content of active pharmaceutical ingredients (e.g., anticancer drugs, peptides, proteins) and targeting ability. Our expertise includes the synthesis of precise, biocompatible polymers such as polypeptides (by chemical synthesis or recombinant DNA technology), polysaccharides, and polypeptide-polysaccharide conjugates.

We present here an overview of the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers developed in our laboratory, focusing polymersomes, and their contribution in nanomedicine. We pay particular attention to block copolymer vesicles based on polysaccharides, polypeptides and proteins. In particular, we have recently developed synthetic strategies for the design of glycosylated polypeptides and polysaccharide-polypeptide biohybrids with controlled placement of the sugar functionality. We have been particularly interested in the design of amphiphilic copolymers capable of self-assembling into well-defined micelles and vesicles that can advantageously be loaded with drugs and present a surface with multivalent presentation of bioactive saccharide moieties. Recent developments at the interface of bioengineering and polymer science, based on elastin-like polypeptides, relevant for regenerative medicine, glycoproteins and lipoprotein mimetics, will also be proposed.

Finally, our most recent advances in the design of complex, compartmentalized and functional artificial cells will be presented. Such a system is a first step towards the challenge of structural cell mimicry and functionality, and could act in the future as an autonomous artificial cell capable of detecting and healing in situ any biological deregulation.

Recent contributions :

[1] LMM Bravo Anaya, R Petitdemange, M Rosselin, E Ibarboure, B Garbay, E Garanger, TJ Deming, S Lecommandoux. Biomacromolecules 22, 1, 76–85 (2021)

[2] M. Levêque, Y. Xiao, L. Durand, L. Masse, E. Garanger, S. Lecommandoux. Biomaterials Science 10, 6365-6376 (2022)

[3] V Ibrahimova, H Zhao, E Ibarboure, E Garanger, S Lecommandoux. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 60, 15036-15040 (2021)

[4] H. Duan, M. Donovan, F. Hernandez, C. Di Primo, E. Garanger, X. Schultze, S. Lecommandoux. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 132 (32), 13693-13698 (2020)

[5] H. Zhao, V. Ibrahimova, E. Garanger, S. Lecommandoux. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 132 (27), 11121-11129 (2020)

[6] H. Zhao, E. Ibarboure, V. Ibrahimova, Y. Xiao, E. Garanger, S. Lecommandoux. Advanced Science 2102508 (2021)

[7] C. Schvartzman, H. Zhao, E. Ibarboure, V. Ibrahimova, E. Garanger, S. Lecommandoux. Advanced Materials (2023, in press)