Stimuli-responsive polymers: Engineering interactions

The search for stimuli-responsive materials challenges researchers to creatively engineer polymers at the molecular level to address the future needs. Molecular interactions also take place at cellular surfaces to stimulate a number of events including cell signaling, and endocytosis. Cameron Alexander of University of Nottingham, described the use carbohydrate-bearing polymer vesicles to interact with bacteria, and thereby, decipher the language cells used to communicate. Polymers such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and poly(oligoethylene glycol methacrylate) possess a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) that represents the temperature above which the polymer phase separates from the solution. Robert Moore and Heino Finkelmann have reported synthetic polymer systems that behave as artificial muscles.