Sarah Perry
University of Massachusetts, MA·Engineering
Molecules with opposite electric charges attract each other and can organize themselves into larger structures. This research asks how that charge-driven assembly can be controlled to make useful materials and tools.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
Chemistry
- Topics
polyelectrolytes
complex coacervates
lipids
- Grants
- 4 known grants, through Sep 2029
What they work on
- Use sequence-defined charged polymers mixed with lipids to create ordered nanostructures for separation membranes. Measure the structures by scattering and predict them with multiscale simulations and machine learning.
- Find out how the sequence of charged polypeptides controls whether oppositely charged surfactants form spheres, layers or tubes. Use microscopy, scattering, rheology and polymer field theory modeling.
- Build X-ray-compatible fixed-target sample holders that keep protein crystals stable and active, including in oxygen-free conditions, for serial crystallography at free-electron lasers and synchrotrons.
- Develop polymer microfluidic crystal arrays that start reactions with light, added chemicals, or graphene-based voltage jumps, for time-resolved studies of how proteins move.
- Identify the molecular features of excipients, such as hydrogen bonding and effects on water structure, that stabilize viruses. Combine experimental stability tests with molecular dynamics simulations.
- Train a machine learning model on excipient–virus data to design stabilizing excipient mixtures that reduce the need to keep viral vaccines cold.
More about the research
Examples include membranes that sort molecules, soap-like structures, and devices that let scientists watch proteins move. The work spans polymer chemistry, microfluidics (tiny fluid channels on chips), and computer modeling. A common thread is linking the details of molecular structure to how a material behaves.
Why it matters
Membranes that self-assemble without toxic solvents could improve water purification, drug manufacturing and agricultural separations. Low-cost crystallography sample holders could let many more structural biologists see how proteins move during reactions. Predicting which additives keep viral vaccines stable could reduce the need for refrigerated supply chains. Today these cold-chain requirements keep vaccines from millions of people each year.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
DMREF: Collaborative Research: Engineering Selective Membranes from Lipid-Polyelectrolyte Complexes
NSF · Oct 2025 – Sep 2029
Collaborative Research: Sequence-Driven Assembly in Polyelectrolyte/Surfactant Complex Coacervates
NSF · Sep 2025 – Aug 2029
Fixed-Target Platforms for Time-Resolved Crystallography
NIH · Sep 2023 – Aug 2027
Closest labs
Charles Sing
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Engineering
Use hybrid polymer field theory informed by particle simulations to test how steric repulsion and hydrophobic interactions control coacervation between polycations and surfactant micelles.
Joe Patterson
University of California-Irvine, CA·Chemistry·Early-career
Make a library of multiphase amphiphilic block copolymers and map how their phase behavior depends on polymer structure and solution conditions, using electron microscopy, optical microscopy and X-ray scattering.
Virgil Percec
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Chemistry
Explain the principles by which polymers and supramolecular assemblies self-organize into Frank-Kasper phases, complex packing structures known from metals and viruses, along with their orientational memory.
The school
University of Massachusetts: 28 labs on PI Pages, $282M a year on research, 337 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.