Nick Huettner’s poster “Cyclic Poly(2-oxazoline)s and Related Compounds as Biomaterials – Challenges to Scale Up” won the “Outstanding Student Poster Presentation” award at the 27th Annual Australasian Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (ASBTE) conference, which was held at Melbourne Connect (University of Melbourne) in Melbourne from 20th to 22nd April 2022.
While highly biocompatible cyclic poly(2-oxazoline)s have gained attention as promising materials for applications such as anti-fouling surface coatings, cartilage reconstruction and as precursors for gene delivery materials, the synthesis of cyclic polymers remains a challenge. Currently, high dilutions and labour-intensive workups are necessary for the synthesis of few milligrams of cyclized product. In his project, Nick is addressing the scale up of cyclic poly(2-oxazoline)s and the so far unexplored cyclic poly(2-oxazine)s by conducting in-depth studies of the cyclization mechanism and the effect of reaction conditions on the reaction outcome. Furthermore, he is exploring the usage of cyclic poly(2-oxazine)s for different applications, such as surface coatings or for the synthesis of novel nanoparticles.
The Annual [ASBTE] Meeting provides opportunities for Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine Scientists and Engineers to share recent developments in research on all aspects of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. these range from Surface Modification and Biointerfaces to Biopolymers, Implants, Materials for Drug Delivery, Nanomaterials, Scaffolds, Materials for Cell Therapies and Clinical Applications. During the three days, attendees also networked and developed collaborations with colleagues from around the world.
Nick is a current PhD student within the Centre for Materials Science and the School of Chemistry & Physics at QUT, supervised by A/Prof. Tim Dargaville and Dr. Anja Goldmann.