Hyperbranched Phosphorylcholine Polymers Synthesized via RAFT Polymerization for Gene Delivery and Synthesis of an Elastomeric Conductive Polymer for Cardiovascular Applications

Gene therapy has the potential to treat a variety of hereditary diseases and relies on the design of a delivery system which can carry a gene of interest into a cell. Viruses were the standard for gene delivery and showed high cell transfection, but could induce an immunological response. As a result, there has been a growing interest towards non-viral carriers such as polymers which are less toxic. This study focused on the synthesis of a hyperbranched phosphorylcholine that incorporates a nontoxic and biocompatible poly(2-Methacryoyloxyethyl Phosphorylcholine (MPC)). The hyperbranched copolymers were synthesized via RAFT polymerization and showed broad molecular weight distributions. However the gene expression was found to be significantly lower than the current non viral standard. In the second part of this thesis, conductive materials were embedded into elastomer films.;In this study, two conductive materials: Poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNT) were embedded into Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).