Tulane researchers awarded grant to develop smart polymers

The National Science Foundation has awarded a group of 14 Louisiana and Mississippi researchers – including four from Tulane University – up to $6 million to develop tools that will accelerate the development of smart polymers used to create materials for targeted drug delivery, self-healing materials that recover from damage and nano-composites that resist bacterial growth.

The Tulane scientists are Hank Ashbaugh, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering; Wayne Reed, physics professor; Scott Grayson, associate professor of chemistry; and Bruce Gibb, chemistry professor and are part of the Louisiana-Mississippi Consortium.

The Tulane team’s share of the grant is $2 million. The interdisciplinary Tulane research team, called the Smart MATerial Design, Analysis and Processing (SMATDAP) Consortium, will apply advanced monitoring, synthesis, modeling and control strategies across the life cycle of polymer development from the laboratory to the factory floor. The consortium will tailor the design of smart polymers to meet pressing needs in drug delivery, environmental remediation and nanomaterials.

“SMATDAP is really the crown on interactions in materials chemistry/science that has been brewing for a while here in the School of Science & Engineering,” Ashbaugh said.

Tulane is among eight universities participating in the Louisiana-Mississippi Consortium. The others are Louisiana State University, University of New Orleans, Xavier University, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi.