UG

The Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Research Group (PBM) representing of the Organic Chemistry Department of UG consists of 22 employees, including 12 PhD students and 6 postdoctoral researchers, under the supervision of Prof. Peter Dubruel and Prof. Etienne Schacht. The group has a longstanding expertise in the field of functional polymers, and more specifically for biomedical applications. The group has already performed, with success, research about the development of biocompatible coatings for biomaterials. The Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials at UG has 30 years of expertise in the synthesis of functional polymers for biomedical applications. The group has published on biodegradable polymers, polymers carrying reactive side groups, polymer-drug conjugates. More recently, several PhD studies have been devoted to photo-cross-linkable prepolymers, flexible cross-linked polysiloxanes and polyurethanes and to surface modification of polymer substrates with the intention to make these materials more biocompatible or more bio-interactive.

Other targets have been polymers for lithographic applications, micro-electronics and biosensors. Over the years, extensive expertise has been collected in the preparation and characterization of a wide variety of polymers.

UG is well equipped for characterization op polymer bulk properties (chemical composition, molecular mass, physico-chemical properties, rheological behaviour, mechanical properties) as well as surface properties (surface topography, surface adhesion phenomena, surface chemical composition). The research programme related to polymers for lithographic applications has included ablation studies of polymer materials. In recent years PBM has been involved in projects related to flexible polymers, i.e. flexible biosensors as well as polymer materials with nano-structured surfaces.