Dr. Margarita Herrera-Alonso, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, discusses her research in polymer science and drug delivery.
How did you get interested in materials science? What interests you the most about materials science?
I became interested in science in childhood. My mother and father would frequently take me and my brothers to visit their labs when they were both professors at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). I enrolled in Chemical Engineering at the UNAM and found that I really enjoyed organic and polymer chemistry courses, so I decided to pursue my graduate studies at the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at UMass-Amherst. I continue to be fascinated by the chemical versatility of polymers and the dramatic change in properties associated with polymerization.
What has been your biggest accomplishment in research?
In my laboratory, we study the molecular and process determinants of solution-based polymer assemblies. Our ability to design and synthesize well-defined polymers exhibiting unique chemical functionality and non-traditional molecular architectures, combined with techniques to carry out their assembly under controlled conditions, allows us to examine a more comprehensive parameter space defined by these variables. Our research has produced advances in polymer science, drug delivery, and self-assembly, with fundamental and technological implications.
What research development or discovery would you be most excited to find?
We have been working on highly-grafted polymers with an amphiphilic character, and have found they exhibit unique self-assembled structures. We are interested in controlling their assembly to generate nanoparticles with controlled chemical surface heterogeneity, similar to viruses. This knowledge would allow us to engineer more efficient delivery vehicles. We are also interested in using the dynamic-covalent character of boronic acids to construct intelligent materials that respond to environmental pH changes and competitive binding interactions in the context of hydrogels.
What advice do you have for students and young engineers engaging in materials research?
Find an aspect of materials science you like and develop a passion for it. Learn chemistry, it’ll prove to be useful regardless of your career path. Be inspired by biology. Practice yoga.