Adi Eisenberg
Block Copolymer Self-Assembly with Application & Drug Delivery and Cellular Internationalization Studies
Department of Chemistry,
McGill University,
Montreal, Quebec
The self-assembly of block copolymers, especially in solution and on surfaces, has been the subject of intense research. In this group, we have shown that highly asymmetric amphiphilic block copolymers (consisting of short soluble and long insoluble blocks) can yield, in aqueous solution, crew-cut aggregates of a very wide range of morphologies and sizes, including spheres, rods, bicontinuous structures (both rod-like and tubular), lamellae, vesicles, as well as a range of compound structures, which are described briefly. From the thermodynamic point of view, the three parameters which are morphogenically most relevant are core chain stretching, corona chain interactions and interfaciald energy. Anything that can influence one or more of these parameters is a morphogenic factor. These include, among others, block length ratios, water content, presence and type of microions, nature of solvent and temperature. Partial morphological 3 component phase diagrams are presented which explore the effect of several variables. The thermodynamic currative stabilization mechanism of the vesicles and some of its implications are discussed in detail. Many of the structures seen in these block copolymer systems bear a strong resemblance to intracellular morphologies. Potential applications in the field of drug delivery and cellular internalization studies are discussed. In the area of drug delivery, the administration of FK 506 in micelles in the cure of a sciatic nerve injuries is shown to accelerate recovery over delivery of the drug without micelles. Finally, both fluorescent micelles and those containing gold particles are shown to be effective in the study of sub cellular localization.
Biography:
After graduation from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1957, Eisenberg received his M.A. from Princeton University in 1959, followed by his Ph.D. in 1960. After a postdoctoral year at Princeton (with A.V. Tobolsky) and another in Basel (with W. Kuhn), he joined the faculty of UCLA in 1962, and moved to McGill in 1967. He was director of Polymer McGill 1991-1998, and became Otto Maass Professor of Chemistry in 1992. Various sabbaticals were spent partly at the Weizman Institute of Science ( Israel), Kyoto University ( Japan), Imperial College ( London), LURE ( Orsay, France), and Bayreuth ( Germany) among others.
Eisenberg is an author or co-author of ca 400 papers in refereed journals as well as ca 100 extended abstracts or short articles (in Polymer Preprints, PMSE preprints, encyclopedias, etc.). He co-authored or edited 8 books in the field. He has supervised over 40 Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, organized 11 major symposia or international meetings and presents numerous lectures at various universities or companies, as well as invited or plenary lectures at various scientific meetings and workshops. Honors include the Killam Research Fellowship 1987-1989, the CIC (Macromolecular Science and Engineering) Dunlop Lecture award in 1988, the Dow Distinguished Lectureship in 1996, and the EWR Steacie award in Chemistry (CSC) in 1998. Eisenberg has been elected to fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada, and has received the Urgel Archambault award of the ACFAS ( Quebec).
Eisenberg supervised 43 MSc. and Ph.D. thesis; 6 of his graduate students are not in Faculty Positions (5 in Canada and 1 in Korea); also, 24 of his former postdocs are now professors (7 in USA, 6 in Japan, including a former University president and a former dean, 3 in China and 2 in Israel).
Earlier work from Eisenberg’s group has centered on ion-containing polymers, which has provided the conceptual framework for understanding architecture - morphology - property relations in random ionomers; his work contributed materially to the increased acceptance of ionomers in a range of commercial applications. He is now involved in the study of the micellization of ionic block copolymers, which show promise as targeted drug delivery vehicles, among others. Aggregates with a very wide range of morphologies have been produced from these materials, including spheres, rods, vesicles, tubules, and a range of unique structures, including some resembling "pincushions". Many of these are morphologically biomimetic. He is co-discoverer of the phenomenon of two-dimensional micellization in block copolymers.
Eisenberg is or was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Polymer Science - Polymer Physics Edition (1977-1999), Macromolecular Reviews (1983-1990), Macromolecules (1986-88) Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids (1989), Polymers for Advanced Technologies (since 1989) and several other publications. He was on the advisory board of the Institute for Amorphous Studies, Michigan and the NSERC Grant selection Committee for Chemistry (1987-1990). He has been a consultant to a number of companies or government laboratories, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Owens Illinois, Energy Conversion Devices, GTE, Raychem, Exxon and Dow Corning, among others. He is a Fellow of the CIC and the APS, and a member of the ACS and the Rheology Society. On all of these he has held official positions, such as memberships of the Executive Committee or Chairmanships.
