Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Bio-Inspired Polymers That Bind And Deliver Protein Cargo, Nicholas D. Posey

Doctoral Dissertations

Delivering functional proteins and antibodies into cells can allow researchers to probe the intracellular environment, discover new cellular pathways, and pioneer new therapeutics. However, the entry of exogenous, charged molecules, like proteins, into the cell is usually restricted by the membrane, thereby hindering intracellular delivery. Membrane permeable molecules such as cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) and protein transduction domains (PTDs) can be used to bypass the cell membrane and deliver protein into the cell, but these peptides involve iterative and laborious syntheses and are limited in terms of their chemical diversity. This dissertation work overall focuses on the design and synthesis …