"Exploiting versatile polymer design to enhance polymer-cell interactions”.

  Polymeric nanostructures are widely investigated to improve the delivery and controlled release of therapeutics, as well as to enhance tissue regeneration and growth. Among them, stimuli responsive nanoparticles are particularly attractive for their ability to release their cargo in response to specific extracellular or intracellular stimuli. Using ring opening polymerization (ROP) and reversible-addition fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization techniques we focus on the design of pH responsive and glutathione responsive polymers that can self-assemble in aqueous environment and release the attached or encapsulated drug in response to an external trigger. Moreover, we showed that polymeric nanostructures of diverse morphology and controlled size formed by crystallisation-driven self-assembly can be incorporated into soft tissue scaffolds to improve their mechanical properties and biological performance.