Self-immolative Polymer Hydrogels via In Situ Gelation.

Hydrogels are of interest for a wide range of applications. The ability to control when the hydrogel degrades can provide beneficial properties such as controlled degradation in the environment or the stimulated release of drugs or cells. Self-immolative polymers are a class of degradable polymers that undergo complete end-to-end depolymerization upon the application of a stimulus.

Depolymerizing self-immolative polymeric lanthanide chelates for vascular imaging.

Medical imaging is widely used clinically and in research to understand disease progression and monitor responses to therapies. Vascular imaging enables the study of vascular disease and therapy, but exogenous contrast agents are generally needed to distinguish the vasculature from surrounding soft tissues. Lanthanide-based agents are commonly employed in MRI, but are also of growing interest for micro-CT, as the position of their k-edges allows them to provide enhanced contrast and also to be employed in dual-energy micro-CT, a technique that can distinguish contrast-enhanced blood vessels from tissues such as bone.

Thermoresponsive Self-Immolative Polyglyoxylamides.

Thermoresponsive polymers with lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) are of significant interest for a wide range of applications from sensors to drug delivery vehicles. However, the most widely investigated LCST polymers have nondegradable backbones, limiting their applications or in the environment. Described here are thermoresponsive polymers based on a self-immolative polyglyoxylamide (PGAM) backbone.