Not with standing unpredictable economic and political situations, the programs of the young scientists’ support still work. For example, the edict about appointment of grants of the President of Ukraine to young scientists was signed. There are 3 representatives of NTUU “KPI” in the list, and it is more than from any other universities. The assistant of the organic chemistry and technology subdepartment, Tetyana Zhuk, is among them.
Having defended the thesis for getting the PhD degree in Organic Chemistry (under the guidance of the doctor of Chemistry, prof. A.A. Fokin), she is researching biocompatible amphiphilic polymers, modified with diamondoids. She speaks about her project with passion, routinely using the specific vocabulary: “In recent years the scientists pay much attention to amphiphilic polymers and block co-polymers, which can create high-structured agglomerates from nanometers to microns in length with different morphological characteristics. Such agglomerates possess great practical potential, starting from biomedicine to nanometer fermentative reactors, because they can respond to the changes of the outer environment parameters (the dissolvent’s nature, environment’s pH, temperature, the effect of magnetic or electrical field) via change of its conformation. In addition, by varying the chemical structure of macromolecules, we can achieve the efficient managing of the molecular aggregation and we can also get the nanosystems of different levels. These peculiarities ensure the practical potential of amphiphilic polymers as stabilizers of aqueous dispersions, means of address drugs delivery, liposomes modification, forming of biocompatible surfaces, which can be used as frames for new materials construction and biomembranes functions modeling”.
“We expect – states the researcher – that diamondoids modification of biocompatible polymers will significantly increase the ability of the aforementioned of creating high-structured nanosystems. It will significantly widen the range of their usage. Concerning bioengineering, the usage of amphiphilic polymers with volumetrical lipophilic element will remarkably increase the association with biomembranes and hydrophobic protein elements. For example, the usage of polyethylene oxide (PEO) with terminal diamondoid fragments will simplify the process of pegylation with lipos, because it will facilitate the self-aggregation of lipids in liposomes with PEO including. Along with this such modification can prolong the existence of liposomes in organism”.