Shouheng Sun

In recent years, citrate-based biomaterials have become an intense focus of research in the search of new functional biomaterials for solving unmet medical problems. Citric acid, historically known as an intermediate in the Krebs cycle, is a multifunctional, nontoxic, readily available, and inexpensive cornerstone monomer used in the design of citrate-based biomaterials. In addition to the convenient citrate chemistry for the syntheses of a number of versatile polymers that may be elastomeric or mechanically strong and tough, injectable and photocrosslinkable, and/or tissue adhesive, citric acid also presents inherent anti-bacterial and anti-clotting characteristics, which make citrate biomaterials ideal for a number of medical applications. All these features make citrate biomaterials promising and worth further developing. Interestingly, the citrate chemistry endows a great freedom in the design of imaging-enabled biodegradable polymers and small molecules, thus greatly expanding the functions and capabilities of the citrate-based biomaterials. Herein, a methodology for the design and biomedical applications of multifunctional citrate biomaterials will be discussed.

Professor Sun received his PhD in Chemistry from Brown University in 1996. He joined the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center first as a postdoctoral fellow (1996-1998) and then as a research staff member (1998-2004). He returned to Brown in 2005 as a tenured faculty member and has been the Professor of Chemistry since 2008. He serves as the Co-Director of Brown's Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation (IMNI) and as an Associate Editor to the journal "Nanoscale" (the Royal Society of Chemistry).

• Time: 11.00 AM
• Location: 206 Furnas Hall
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