Preparation of Monomers and Polymers for the Development of Advanced Drug Delivery Systems

Image showing drug moieties conjugated with macromolecule to form a drug delivery system.

This ultimate goal of this project is to develop advanced drug delivery systems, which combat diseases by effectively sending "targeted bombs" to disease sites. 

Project is Not Currently Available

This project has reached full capacity for the current term. Please check back next semester for updates.

Project description

This undergraduate research project is affiliated with a current NIH project entitled "Multifunctional Biodegradable Zwitterionic Polymer-Drug Conjugates for Multidrug Co-Delivery", which aims to develop novel drug delivery systems to co-deliver multiple drugs in controlled manners. The selected undergraduate student will co-work with graduate students on the R01 project, to learn essential research skills. The regular research activities for the undergraduate student include 1) setting up and monitoring synthetic experiments for the preparation of monomers, polymers, and drug delivery systems; 2) doing separation and purification to get products from these synthetic experiments; 3) analyzing the reaction mixtures and the products using appropriate instrumental analytic approaches; 4) summarizing and assessing experimental results, and proposing future improvement strategies; 5) presenting research work in weekly meetings, one-to-one meetings, as well as a national student conference. Throughout this project, the student will also be guided to follow lab safety rules, learn about ethics and background information related to the research work, provide assistance to lab maintenance, and develop comprehensive skills related to research and professional development. 

Project outcome

The specific outcomes of this project will be identified by the faculty mentor at the beginning of your collaboration. 

  • Adequate knowledge of lab safety, and a strict sense to follow lab safety rules.
  • Adequate knowledge of research ethics, and a strict sense to follow research ethics.
  • Basic but comprehensive understanding of the topic area of research, ranging from the corresponding social needs, key challenges, scientific approaches, to the expected research outcomes.
  • Basic but comprehensive experimental skills, ranging from calculations for chemical recipes, experimental set-up, separation and purification, instrumental analysis, and data analysis.
  • Communication and presentation skills, capable of presenting research work orally and in writing according to the required professional standards.
  • Teamwork spirits under research environments, successfully developing the essential sense of actively providing adequate assistance to co-workers at individual level and lab maintenance at group level. 

Project details

Timing, eligibility and other details
Length of commitment Year-long
Start time Fall, Spring, Summer
In-person, remote, or hybrid? In-Person
Level of collaboration Large group (4+ students)
Benefits

Stipend

Potential academic credit
Who is eligible

Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors with organic chemistry experience

Project mentor

Chong Cheng

Professor

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Phone: (716) 645-1193

Email: ccheng8@buffalo.edu

Start the project

  1. Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
  2. After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.) 
Start the Digital Badge

Preparation activities

Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. After you’re approved to begin the project, your mentor will send the relevant materials. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase. 

In order to be eligible to attending this project, a student should complete course learning on organic chemistry, and further needs to:

  • Read background information on drug delivery from articles and other resources
  • Attend lab safety training. 

Keywords

chemical engineering, chemistry, biomedical engineering, drug delivery, biomaterial