Faculty Directory

Peptide-polymer Conjugates and Biomineralization for ECM Mimic and Tissue engineering: The development of synthetic biomimetic scaffolds that can provide cues for cell-matrix interfaces can dictate cell migration direction and stimulate tissue growth promises materials for next-generation artificial ECM mimetic biomatrix. In quest of designing such materials recently we developed organic-inorganic hybrid systems like peptide template bioglass materials which were utilised as self-healing bone tissue matrix for osteoblast cell growth. Currently, with our expertise in supramolecular chemistry, we are exploring the possibility of controlling mechanical insights such as dynamic mechanical stiffening and compression response of peptide-polymer conjugates as surrogate extracellular matrix materials for muscle regeneration and would healing.

Our contributions in the field:

1. N. Gupta et al. Chem. Mater. 2021, 33, 589–599.

2. J. Thomas, N. Gupta  et al. ACS. Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2021, 7, 5798–5809.

3. J. P. Joseph et al. Chem. Mater. 2022, 34, 4364–4374.

4. D. Nath et al. Biomacromolecules. 2024, 25, 853-863.

5. N. A. Mavlankar et al. J. Mater. Chem. B 2024, 31, ASAP

Living Supramolecular Polymerization in Out-of-equilibrium Peptide Self-assembly and Peptide Bioelectronics: Nature is a seamless designer to provide complex functional architectures through supramolecular polymerization guided by out-of-equilibrium mechanism. Self-assembly hitherto performed in the lab under thermodynamic control results in a precise single state owing to minimalized Gibb’s free energy. In contrast, kinetic control over the self-assembly pathway allows to trap some of the intermediates over the trail of the process.

Since 2015, we are trying to explore various method to kinetically control multi-step self-assembly using living supramolecular polymerization in our lab. Recently, we have been able to accomplish such pathway dependant self-assembly in amyloid inspired minimalistic peptide system to form 1D fiber, twisted bundle and 2D lamellar morphologies. Moreover, the nanostructures were precisely controlled in length and dimension via seeded supramolecular polymerization. Such functional systems were utilized for rendering a better mechanical strength control of resultant hydrogels, efficient MoS2 exfoliation, chiral self-sorting vs. co-assembly, organic catalysis etc. We are also establishing relations of peptide nanostructures and piezo responsive nature for eventual application in peptide bioelectronics in artificial skin.

Our reports in the field:

1. A. Singh et al. Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 10730—10733.

2. J. P. Joseph et al. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11, 28213–28220.

3. D. Gupta et al. Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 18692-18700.

4. A. Singh et al. Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 13401-13409.

5. D. Gupta et al. Chem. Mater., 2022, 34, 4456-4470.

6. N. Mavlankar et al. ChemNanoMat, 2022, 8, e20220036.

7. D. Gupta et al. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2023, 15, 25110-25121.

8. Umesh et al. Langmuir., 2024, 40, 2754-2763.

Chiroptical Polymers: Development of chiral molecules on peptide and polymeric platforms that can be exploited for chiral sensing and recognition applications. Topochemical polymerization to chiral polydiacetylene are being used as an interesting platform to interact with metal nanoparticles for chiroptical amplifications. Achiral and chiral gold nanoparticles were incorporated in the chiral polymers and the stereoselective plasmonic interactions investigated, with the ultimate goal of designing  next-generation organic–inorganic hybrid materials with large chiroptic effects for eventual application in sensing and metamaterials.

Our contributions in the field:

1. J. P. Joseph et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2023, 62, e2023067.

2. A. Maulik et al. New J. Chem., 2023, 47, 1657-1665.

3. B. Sharma et al. New J. Chem., 2018, 42, 6427-6432. 

Functional Polymer Self-assembly for Tuneable Nanostructures: Nature has an unprecedented handle over the conformation and dynamics of its macromolecular morphologies. One of such examples is the finite arrangement of amino acids in the living system into a spatial organization through chain folding that can carry out specific functions like enzymatic catalysis in an extremely efficient way. These intricate structure-activity relationships observed in biopolymers like proteins inspired us to design synthetic macromolecular architectures by bottom-up approach. Since 2017, we have designed a number of single-chain functional polymers using a variety of polymer synthesis protocols such as ATRP, RAFT etc. This polymers endowed stimuli-responsive chain collapse to form precisely controlled nanoparticles, which by mediation of thermo-responsive copolymers is exploited towards thermal homeostasis of drug release. Currently, we are looking at interesting convertible nanostructures from precisely controlled segmented block-copolymers for targeted drug delivery applications.

Additionally, photofixation of functional moieties in the polymer modulate the glass transition temperature and resultant chain flow behaviour that have been utilized in low viscosity polymer film self-healing, that is being considered for coating application. Further, tweaking such polymers anchored with paramagnetic nanoparticles we are exploring different self-healing mechanism.

Our contributions in the field:

1. J. P. Joseph et al. Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 2506-2515.

2. J. P. Joseph et al. Polym. Chem., 2021, 12, 1002-1013. 

3. C. Miglani et al.  RSC Advances, 2021, 11, 39376-39386.

4. C. Miglani et al. Chem. Commun., 2023, 59, 13195-13198.

5. C. Miglani et al. ACS Polym. Au, 2024, 4, 255-265.

Hydrogels/Microgels for Drug/Agrochemical delivery and Antimicrobial applications: Hydrogels materials from amino acids, lipids, sugars and polymer possess a three-dimensional network structure with thermal and mechanical stability that can be utilized to retain water and drug molecules.

Recently, we started exploring this field including development of hydrogel beads that employs minimal water usage and sufficient fertilizers to grow a plant in semi-arid areas under adverse weather conditions and peptide-prodrug system to deliver drug via enzymatic degradation. 

We also developed supramolecular metallohydrogel that could host Fenton reaction to generate ROS for mitigating bacterial infection toward alternative strategy to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

Recently, we are developing stimuli-responsive microgels for actuation, on demand drug delivery and photopharmacology applications.

Our report in the field:

1. J. P. Joseph RSC Advances, 2019, 9, 19819-19827.

2. M. Pradhan et al. Nanoscale, 2022, 14, 15079-15090.

3. Umesh et al. Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 13050-13060.