“Green” Synthesis of Unnatural Poly(amino acid) – A
Sustainable and Polyfunctional Biomaterial
Dr. Ivan Gitsov, Associate Professor, Chemistry Department, SUNY
College of Environmental Science and Forestry
ABSTRACT
This talk will present our latest results in the “green” synthesis of novel
materials. Using semi-artificial enzymes (supramolecular complexes of
an enzyme and amphiphilic linear-dendritic block copolymers) we are
able to perform mild polymerizations of hydrophobic natural
substrates in water and under environmentally friendly conditions. The
polymerization, which will be the focus of discussion, involves tyrosine
as the substrate/monomer and leads to an unnatural poly(amino acid), a polymer with free amino- and
carboxylic groups at every repeating unit. This material is intrinsically biocompatible and shows rather
unusual solution behavior due to the polybetaine nature of the macromolecules.
BIOGRAPHY
Ivan Gitsov graduated from University of Sofia “St Kliment Ohridski” with MS in organic chemistry. He
completed his PhD thesis in polymer science at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Polymers.
After short stint at The R&D Institute for Special Chemicals in Sofia, he moved to Cornell University
initially as Visiting Scientist and later as Research Associate, Manager of the Polymer Characterization
Facility and finally as Visiting Assistant Professor. Currently he is Associate Professor in the Department
of Chemistry at SUNY ESF, University Guest Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and
member of the Michael M. Szwarc Polymer Research Institute and Syracuse Biomaterials Institute.
Professor Gitsov is among the top 5 % of the most cited scientists in chemistry and his other honors
include The Greve Fellowship in Science and Technology and Cottrell Scholarship.