ACS Webinar: Polymers at the Interface of Sustainability and Health: Degradable Design & Synthetic Insights

Join us for this double presentation to learn how the rational design of polymers can be used to both protect our environment and advance human health to solve today’s most pressing scientific and societal challenges.

Microplastics now permeate ecosystems, organisms, and even the human body. Biodegradable plastics offer a path forward, and abundant, sustainable polysaccharides hold particular promise. But they can be sensitive to water, and sometimes are too weak or brittle. Kevin Edgar of Virginia Tech will discuss a regio- and chemoselective strategy to create fully degradable composite materials that promise to address these drawbacks, with potential to reduce plastic pollution and fossil dependence without sacrificing functionality.

Cell surfaces are coated with the glycocalyx, an intricate ensemble of glycosylated proteins and lipids that mediates primary interactions between cells and their external environment. The non-templated synthesis of glycans and their complex organization within macromolecular protein scaffolds pose significant challenges for studying their functions and targeting them therapeutically. Kamil Godula of UC San Diego will showcase how glycopolymers can be leveraged to modulate glycan-mediated cellular behaviors, such as directing stem cell differentiation, and to investigate mechanisms of viral entry and host-pathogen interactions.

This ACS Webinar is moderated by Cassandra Callman of The University of Texas at Austin and coproduced with the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry.

What You Will Learn
 

• What are the advantages of polysaccharides in sustainable plastics
• How to selectively modify the incredibly complex family of polysaccharides
• How to design polysaccharide-based compatibilizers to make degradable materials work together
• Why glycans are vital regulators of cell-surface interactions and functions, and how glycopolymers provide a powerful way to emulate their biological roles
• How the repetitive architecture of synthetic polymers enables polyvalent glycan presentation, mimicking diverse glycoproteins, from mucins to glycosaminoglycans, with high-avidity protein binding
• How controlled polymerization allows precise tuning of glycan display and integration with other biomolecules, opening new strategies to engineer cellular interfaces and modulate behavior

Event Details

• Wednesday, October 29, 2025 @ 2-3:30pm ET
   
• Free to attend
   
• Slides will be available on the day of the event