Applied Biomimetic A/s

The Penn State Research Foundation

Vandstrom Aps

Mariusz Piotr Grzelakowski

Manish Kumar

Ian T Sines

Yan Zhang

Ian Sines

A process for the preparation of a filtration membrane, which includes providing an aqueous suspension of vesicles having transmembrane proteins incorporated therein, the vesicles being formed from an amphiphilic block copolymer having reactive end groups; providing a porous support; functionalizing a surface of the porous support to introduce reactive groups on the surface which are capable of reacting with the reactive end groups of the amphiphilic block copolymers of the vesicles; depositing said suspension of vesicles on a surface of the porous support; and providing reaction conditions such that covalent bonds are formed between the vesicles and the surface.

Process for making membranes

The invention provides a filtration membrane which comprises a porous support and, covalently bonded to a surface thereof, a layer comprising a plurality of vesicles having transmembrane proteins incorporated therein, said vesicles being formed from an amphiphilic block copolymer; characterised in that within said layer, vesicles are covalently linked together to form a coherent mass. The membrane may be prepared by a process which comprises providing an aqueous suspension of vesicles having transmembrane proteins incorporated therein, said vesicles being formed from an amphiphilic block copolymer having reactive end groups; depositing said suspension of vesicles on a surface of a porous support; and providing reaction conditions such that covalent bonds are formed between different vesicles and between vesicles and said surface.

A method of preparing a membrane comprising the steps of: a) mixing together a membrane-forming polymer, a water-soluble polyetheramine, and a solvent, said mixture containing no component which will react chemically with the polyetheramine; and b) casting said mixture to form the polymer into a solid membrane.

Method of preparing membranes

Vesicles formed from a block copolymer comprising at least one (poly)2-Calkyl-2-oxazoline block and at least one polybutadiene block; and membranes comprising such vesicles. Block copolymers comprising at least one (poly)2-Calkyl-2-oxazoline block and at least one polybutadiene block, provided that the copolymer is not the diblock copolymer consisting of 40 butadiene units and 190 2-methyl-2-oxazoline units terminated by a hydroxy group, are novel, and also form part of the invention.

Vesicles formed from block copolymers, and novel block copolymers

Novel block copolymers comprising at least one (poly)2-Calkyl-2-oxazoline block and at least one (poly)dimethyl siloxane block, having at least one end group X which includes both an &#x2014;NHgroup and an &#x2014;NH&#x2014; group, have been found to be particularly suitable for forming vesicles. The vesicles may be used to form filtration membranes.

Growing community of inventors

Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Mariusz Piotr Grzelakowski