Aaron Priester, a doctoral candidate in materials science and engineering, will defend their dissertation titled “Raft-Based Polymers and Nanoparticle Materials for Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment and Diagnostics.” Their advisor, Dr. Anthony Convertine, is assistant professor in the materials science and engineering department. The dissertation abstract is provided below.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide.
Neurodegenerative diseases that develop post-TBI can be, in part, attributed to DNA and cell-damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation products (LPOx). This thesis focused on overcoming the limits of current TBI material treatment approaches by employing a RAFT (reversible-addition fragmentation chain transfer) polymer approach that incorporated novel therapeutic, diagnostic and peptide-targeting monomers. An improved nanoparticle synthesis approach was also developed. Thiol and thioether-containing monomers neutralize both ROS and LPOx while Gd-containing monomers with enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast provide diagnostics and material tracking in vivo. Peptide monomer incorporation additionally promotes passage across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and accumulation in the brain.

Resulting thiol and thioether polymers provided significant neuroprotective properties,
showing potential through a series of LPOx / ROS assays and in vivo mouse models. Optimized incorporation of Gd-containing monomers allowed precise material tracking in vivo, confirming accumulation in the brain. Incorporation of peptide monomers promoted polymer perfusion into the brain, surpassing the highly selective BBB. Lastly, a simple and novel one-pot reproducible nanoparticle synthesis method was established. This work highlights the adaptability and promise of both RAFT-based polymer and nanoparticles approaches to TBI treatment. In addition, it establishes novel therapeutic, diagnostic and targeting monomers that were effective in achieving their respective objectives and that may be used in future TBI material scaffold designs.