Precision-built dynamic and functional polymer vesicles
The current research aim is to design and synthesize well-defined dendrimers, from a variety of polymeric building blocks, using a combination of living radical polymerization and orthogonal ‘click’ chemistry. The advantage of this approach is that it allows us to introduce function and have precise control over composition, size, and architecture of the dendritic structures.
Irma Vermeijlen completed her Bachelor of Science (BSc + Honors; ‘Cum Laude’) in Medical Sciences and Engineering in 2018 at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e; Netherlands). She continued to obtain her Master of Science degree (MSc; ‘With great appreciation’) in Biomedical Engineering at the TU/e in 2021. During this master she specialised in the direction of Bio-Organic Chemistry, performing her graduation project on the development of polymersomes with controlled topology as antigen-presenting cells for immunotherapy in the group of prof. dr. ir. Jan van Hest. She completed her degree with an internship in the group of prof. dr. Bert Meijer (TU/e), in which she synthesized an asymmetric water-soluble benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) monomer to introduce specific functionalities in BTA fibers. In July 2022, she started her PhD in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Prof. Michael Monteiro and Dr. Sung-Po (Rafael) Chen.
Key publications
Annelies C. Wauters, Jari F. Scheerstra, Irma G. Vermeijlen, Roel Hammink, Marjolein Schluck, Laura Woythe, Hanglong Wu, Lorenzo Albertazzi, Carl G. Figdor, Jurjen Tel, Loai K. E. A. Abdelmohsen, and Jan C. M. van Hest (2022). Artificial Antigen-Presenting Cell Topology Dictates T Cell Activation. ACS Nano, 2022, 16(9), 15072–15085.