Over the past 15 years, poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (POEGMA) has been investigated as a substitute for linear PEG for various biomedical applications. POEGMA brushes exhibit a highly branched architecture with a high density of oligo ethylene glycol moieties, which are responsible for the excellent nonfouling behavior of the material. The first demonstration of the nonfouling properties of POEGMA brushes in serum was reported by our laboratory nearly 15 years ago. In these initial reports, Ma et al. used surface initiated polymerization to grow POEGMA brushes from a variety of substrates. We—and later others—observed that protein resistance is a function of brush thickness and density which can be tuned by varying the polymerization times and surface density of the active initiator.
Publications:
JT Heggestad, CM Fontes, DY Joh, AM Hucknall, and A Chilkoti, In pursuit of zero 2.0: Recent developments in nonfouling polymer brushes for immunoassays, Advanced Materials, First published: 29 November 2019.
DY Joh, Z Zimmers, M Avlani, JT Heggestad, HB Aydin, N Ganson, S Kumar, C Fontes, RK Achar, MS Hershfield, AM.Hucknall, and A Chilkoti, Architectural modification of conformal PEG-bottlebrush coatings minimizes anti-PEG antigenicity without compromising stealth properties, Advanced Healthcare Materials, 1801177 (2019).