About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields
of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer
MaterialScience LLC is one of the leading producers of polymers
and high-performance plastics in North America and is part of the
global Bayer Material Science business with approximately
14,800 employees at 30 production sites around the world and
2011 sales of 10.8 billion euros. Bayer MaterialScience’s 2011
sales in North America were $2.9 billion. The company
manufactures high-tech polymer materials and develops
innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life.
The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and
electronics, construction, medical, and sports and leisure
industries. Sustainability is central to Bayer MaterialScience LLC’s
business and is based around the key areas of innovation, product
stewardship, and excellence in corporate management, social
responsibility and respect for the environment.
THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON DEPARTMENT OF POLYMER
ENGINEERING
PRESENTS
The 2015 Bayer Lectureship
Prof. Michael Rubner
Department of Materials Science,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lecture 1, April 16th 1:30 pm: “Stimuli-Responsive Polymer
Assemblies for Biomedical Applications”
Lecture 2, April 17th 11:00 am: “Hydrogen-Bonded Multilayers:
from Zwitter-Wettable Surfaces to pH-Controlled Multi-Stage
Dissolution”
Lectures to be held in GDYR 229
SPONSORED BY BAYER MATERIALSCIENCE, PITTSBURGH
BAYER LECTURESHIP IN POLYMER ENGINEERING
Michael F. Rubner is the TDK Professor of
Polymer Materials Science and Engineering in
the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering at MIT where he has been faculty
since 1986. He has been the director of MIT’s
NSF MRSEC since 2002. Prof. Rubner received
his bachelor’s degree from the UMass Lowell
(summa cum laude) in 1982 and his Ph.D from
MIT in materials science in 1986. While
pursuing these degrees, he also worked full
time at GTE Laboratories. Prof. Rubner has
won every major teaching award given at MIT
and was named an MIT MacVicar Teaching
Fellow in 1986. He has given approximately
200 invited lectures and published over 200 technical papers, including 5
book chapters. From 1995 to 1999 he was the U.S. Editor of Supramolecular
Science for Elsevier and he has been on the board of directors for the
Materials Research Society and the Advisory Boards of the Brookhaven
National Lab and the ACS Chemistry of Materials Journal. He is an MRS Fellow
as well as an ACS PMSE fellow. He is considered to be one of the founding
fathers in the rapidly growing area of polyelectrolyte multilayers. His
contributions have played a seminal role in defining and shaping the
landscape of this area of polyelectrolyte processing.
Thursday April 16th, 1:30 pm
“Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Assemblies for Biomedical
Applications”
Recently, a number of new strategies have been developed for drug delivery
and disease diagnostic applications that exploit the benefits of an active
immune system modified with synthetic materials for added functionality.
For example, we have demonstrated the successful functionalization of living
cells with 7-10 μm diameter polymer patches, fabricated by using layer-bylayer (LbL) assembly. These patches, which are referred to as cell backpacks,
can adhere to the surface of immune cells, such as T and B lymphocytes,
through specifically engineered interactions, like antibody-antigen binding.
Since immune cells (e.g. monocytes and T cells), are activated and recruited
during an immunological response to diseases such as cancer, they can be
used as vehicles to carry and deliver potent anticancer drugs for site-specific
drug delivery. The use of non-cytotoxic, stimuli-responsive materials is a key
enabling aspect of such systems. In this presentation, a variety of different
stimuli-responsive systems that have utility in biomedical applications will be
discussed. These include the use of echogenic liposomes (ELIPs) in
polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films for drug delivery applications (see
image below). Also discussed will be the demonstration that bovine
submaxillary mucin (BSM) and the lectin jacalin (JAC) can be successfully
assembled into multilayer films using LbL assembly. This particular
biocompatible multilayer system can be utilized as an “on-demand” release
platform with the ability to disassemble by using added sugar molecules as
opposed to potentially damaging pH or temperature changes. This novel
release system is compatible with drug-loaded and cell adhesive multilayers
at neutral pH, thus broadening the potential drug or protein payloads that
can be incorporated into cell backpacks.
Friday April 17th, 11:00 am
“Hydrogen-Bonded Multilayers: from Zwitter-Wettable Surfaces to
pH-Controlled Multi-Stage Dissolution”
Imagine a coating that can simultaneously appear to be both hydrophobic
and hydrophilic. We refer to this phenomenon as zwitter-wettabllity. In
essence, it means that the coating exhibits hydrophobic qualities when
exposed to water droplets (contact angle >110°), but, at the same time, is
capable of imbibing a significant amount of water from the vapor phase, as
would be the case for a hydrophilic coating. By adding a high enough
concentration of polymers that strongly hydrogen bond with water, it is
further possible to create an anti-frost coating. This ability to resist frost
formation when the coating is first exposed to below freezing temperatures
and then to room temperature and high humidity is a direct result of the
coatings capacity for absorbing water molecules in a non-freezing state. In
this talk, the design, characterization and properties of new zwitter-wettable
coatings will be presented. In addition, it will be demonstrated that noncrosslinked, multi-zone heterostructures with similar compositions can be
created that can undergo a pH-driven process involving the selective
dissolution of specific, well defined compartments within the thin film.