302 831 8079 wagnernj@udel.edu

Photo Credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy.

Rachel R. Ford

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ph.D. in Chemistry, California Institute of Technology, 2021

B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics, Summa cum Laude, University of Florida, 2014

 
Contact Information

Email: rrford@udel.edu

Phone: (301) 975-4710

Office: NCNR E130.2

 

 

Structure Development in Multicomponent Polymer Systems

Solutions of injectable pharmaceutical products must meet certain requirements to ensure their safety and accurate dosage, and preserve activity of the drug. As aggregation may generate immunological responses and impact the efficacy of drugs, proteins need to be formulated in solutions free from large aggregates; to avoid aggregation, drug formulations often require stabilizing excipients including surfactants and antimicrobial agents. Surfactants are able to self-assemble in solution into a variety of nanostructures ideal for dispersing and stabilizing biologic drugs. A commonly used nonionic surfactant employed in biopharmaceutical formulations is poloxamer 188 (P188), a thermoresponsive ABA triblock copolymer of polyethylene oxide and polypropylene oxide wherein the propylene oxide block constitutes approximately 20% by weight. Recent research shows that the combination of preservatives such as phenol and benzyl alcohol with P188 can lead to the development of large aggregates that eventually make the drug solution turbid over time. A fundamental understanding of the aggregation mechanism is critical to help the industry design their formulation approach for future products using P188. To address this need I am conducting a systematic study on P188/preservative solutions using various neutron scattering techniques at the NIST Center for Neutron Research, with a particular focus on the kinetics of structure development. This project is in collaboration with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and UD Affiliate Professor Yun Liu.

In my graduate work, I used neutron scattering to understand microstructure formation in a class of multifunctional polymer materials called mixed-matrix polymeric particle (M2P2) membranes. In these materials, we grow a functional polymer in situ in a solution containing a preformed scaffold polymer, a method pioneered by Caltech co-advisor Mamadou Diallo that avoids a fundamental challenge in polymer science: polymers with different functions often do not mix. The result is a kinetic competition between polymerization and phase separation of the functional polymer from the scaffold polymer, which is then quenched by immersion in a nonsolvent. In my quest to understand how these competing processes interact for systematic design of multifunctional membranes, I developed a general method for studying transient structure with ultra-small angle neutron scattering.

 

 

Publications

1. Ford, R.R. & Kim, J.; Bateman, O.; Diallo, M.S.; Kornfield, J.A. Ultra-small angle neutron scattering as a tool for kinetic analysis: microstructure formation in multicomponent polymeric membranes. In preparation.
2. Ford, R.R., Bateman, O.; Diallo, M.S.; Kornfield, J.A. Polymer architecture plays a crucial role in structure formation during in situ growth of microgels in mixed-matrix polymeric particle membranes. In preparation.
3. Bateman, O., Ford, R.R.; Diallo, M.S.; Kornfield, J.A. Tailoring microstructure in mixed-matrix polymeric particle membranes informed by ultra-small angle neutron scattering. In preparation.
4. Schulz, M.D.; Ford, R.R.; Wagener K.B. Insertion Metathesis Depolymerization. Polym. Chem. 2013. 4, 3656–3658.