Soft Matter, 13, 7571-7577 (2017)
Monika Kluzek, Arwen I. I. Tyler, Shiqi Wang, Rongjun Chen, Carlos M. Marques, Fabrice Thalmann, John M. Seddon, Marc Schmutz
Cubosomes consist in submicron size particles of lipid bicontinuous cubic phases stabilized by surfactant polymers. They provide an appealing road towards the practical use of lipid cubic phases for pharmaceutical and cosmetic […]

Chem. Mater., DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00054 (2017).
Shiqi Wang and Rongjun Chen
The insufficient delivery of biomacromolecular therapeutic agents into the cytoplasm of mammalian cells remains a major barrier to their pharmaceutical applications. Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are considered as potential carriers for cytoplasmic delivery of macromolecular drugs. However, due to the positive charge of most CPPs, strong non-specific cell […]

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, Article ASAP (2017)
Siyuan Chen, Shiqi Wang, Michal Kopytynski, Marie Bachelet, and Rongjun Chen
Endosomal release has been identified as a rate-limiting step for intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents, in particular macromolecular drugs. Herein, we report a series of synthetic pH-responsive, membrane-anchoring polymers exhibiting dramatic endosomolytic activity for efficient intracellular delivery. The comb-like […]

Macromol. Biosci. (2016)
Shiqi Wang, Xiaoxue Liu, Ignacio J. Villar-Garcia and Rongjun Chen

This study reports a series of novel amino acid based dual-responsive hydrogels. Prepared by a facile one-pot 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) coupling reaction, the solid content, structure, and mechanical behavior of hydrogels could be easily adjusted by changing the concentrations of the polymers and the crosslinkers. With pH-responsive anionic pseudo-peptides […]

The 4th workshop on biomaterials and their interactions with biological and model membranes was held in Salou (October 19th — 21th). Following up to the previous three workshops in 2011, 2013 and 2014, this meeting mainly focused on the interactions of synthetic polymers, nanoparticles, surfactants, proteins, small biomolecules with biological and model phospholipid membranes. Participants […]

1-2 October 2014 – Cambridge, Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge.

After months of discussions and proposals conducted by supervisors from each host institution and the program director, Dr. Vladimir Baulin, the management meeting in Cambridge sets the beginning of a great adventure!
In an atmosphere both earnest and casual, many topics have been […]

Chemical synthesis, characterisation of polymers and nano-objects
Objectives
This project is focused on development of functional biomimetic polymers which can traverse across cellular membranes to deliver payloads into the cell interior.

Synthesis and characterization of pH-responsive, membrane-active polymers.
Preparation of therapeutic nanoparticles incorporating chemotherapeutic agents or biological molecules.
Understanding and controlling of the trafficking of polymers into a model cellular […]