title: Self-assemblies of amphiphilic homopolymers: synthesis, morphology studies and biomedical applications.
abstract: The need for a simplified access to supramolecular assemblies with enhanced tenability has led to the development of amphiphilic homopolymers (APHPs). This feature article highlights recent advances and future trends in APHP design, self-assembly, and biomedical applications. APHP self-assemblies are prepared by two different routes: the "monomer-induced" method, which polymerizes functional amphiphilic monomers into micelles and inverse micelles, and the "hydrophobic-group-induced" method, which uses the non-covalent interaction provided by large hydrophobic endgroups. Special emphasis is paid to unimolecular polymeric micelles (UPMs) which are formed from core-shell APHPs and which consist of a hydrophobic/hydrophilic core coated with a polymer shell. The self-assembled supramolecular structures hold promise for various biomedical fields, including living cell transport, fluorescence labelling, protein sensing and extraction, DNA detection, and drug loading and release.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Key Laboratory of Carbon Fiber and Functional Polymers of Ministry of Education, Beijing Laboratory of Biomedical Materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 100029 Beijing, China. yinmz@mail.buct.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kelan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Müllen
authors.forename: Meizhen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D002460:Cell Line; D006801:Humans; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008823:Micelles; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D008823:Micelles; D011108:Polymers