Megan G. Roberts

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Contact Information

Title: Assistant Professor
Office: BGSB 2020
Labs: BGSB 2008
Phone (Office): ext. 86302
E-mail: megan.roberts@uwo.ca

Organic Teaching Division

Group Website 

 

 

   

  

 

Education

2021 PhD in Polymer & Materials Chemistry from University of Toronto
2016 BSc Hons. in Biological Chemistry from University of Toronto

Research

The response of a polymer material at a biological interface depends on its physicochemical properties. Dr. Roberts’ research group is driven to understand the way that biopolymers interact with each other as well as with synthetic polymer surfaces so that we can learn to exploit these interactions and maximize the performance of new polymer materials for medical applications.

Three foundational themes serve research projects with the Roberts Lab: 
  1. Using intentional polymer surface design to manipulate protein corona formation. Research in this area will focus on the development of methods for characterizing biological responses to polymer surfaces. Over time, this will allow us to build a “medicine by design” toolkit and readily participate in industrially relevant safety studies.
  2. Sustainable emulsion-based vaccine technologies. This approach combines adjuvance with delivery method in novel vaccine formulations. To this end, we exploit the self-assembly of biopolymers at the oil/water interface to create dryable, oil-powder vaccine formulations that may be redispersed to reform liquid emulsions.
  3. Exploiting the self-assembly of polysaccharides for biocompatible materials. While assembly of biomacromolecules is an area of growing interest, the preparation of precise carbohydrate assemblies remains relatively unexplored due to their structural complexity and diversity. Projects in this area will focus on understanding the crystallization driven self-assembly potential of polysaccharides so that we can eventually develop next-generation biomaterials from these essential macromolecules. 
 
Trainees of Dr. Roberts will become equipped in experimental methods for surface characterization of colloidal particles in addition to learning techniques for polymer synthesis and having the opportunity to develop good cell culture practices too.
Additionally and importantly, Dr. Roberts’ mentoring philosophy centres on effective communication and tailored support for developing mentee independence, productivity, and fulfillment. By promoting learning through inquiry and instilling ownership of scientific research, her goal is to actively teach critical thinking; thus, empowering her mentees to acquire universal skills in problem-solving, collaboration, and failure reconciliation.

Teaching

In W 2025, Dr. Roberts will teach a graduate course on “Polymer Materials for a Circular Bioeconomy.”

Publications

Please visit Dr. Roberts’ Google Scholar for an up-to-date record of publications.

  1. Roberts, M.G. and Niinivaara, E; Pääkkönen, T.; King, C.; Kontturi, E.; Cranston, E.D. Dispersing uncharged cellulose nanocrystals through oligosaccharide precipitation surface modification. Mater. Adv. 2024, 5, 2260.
  2. Roberts, M.G.; Facca, V.J.; Keunen, R.; Yu, Q. Reilly, R.M.; Winnik, M.A. Changing Surface Polyethylene Glycol Architecture Affects Elongated Nanoparticle Penetration into Multicellular Tumor Spheroids. Biomacromolecules 2022, 23(8), 3296.
  3. Liu, J.; Jarzabek, J.; Roberts, M.G.; Majonis, D.; Winnik, M.A. A Silica Coating Approach to Enhance Bioconjugation on Metal-Encoded Polystyrene Microbeads for Bead-Based Assays in Mass Cytometry. Langmuir 2021, 37(27), 8240.
  4. Yu, Q. and Roberts, M.G.; Houdaihed, L.; Liu, Y.; Ho, K.; Walker, G.; Allen, C.; Reilly, R.M.; Manners, I.; Winnik, M.A. Investigating the influence of block copolymer micelle length on cellular uptake and penetration in a multicellular tumor spheroid model. Nanoscale 2021, 13(1), 280. (This article is part of the themed collection: Nanoscale Most Popular 2021 Articles and was in the top 5% of highly cited articles from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2022).
  5. Roberts, M.G.; Yu, Q.; Keunen, R.; Liu, J.; Wong, E.C.N.; Reilly, R.M.; Allen, C.; Winnik, M.A. Functionalization of Cellulose Nanocrystals with POEGMA Copolymers via Copper-Catalyzed Azide–Alkyne Cycloaddition for Potential Drug-Delivery Applications. Biomacromolecules 2020, 21(6), 2014. 
  6. Ede, J.D.; Lobaskin, V.; Vogel, U.; Lynch, I.; Halappanavar, S.; Doak, S.H.; Roberts, M.G.; Shatkin, J. Translating Scientific Advances in the AOP Framework to Decision Making for Nanomaterials. Nanomaterials 2020, 10(6) 1229.
  7. Prince, E.; Narayanan, P.; Chekini, M.; Pace-Tonna, C.; Roberts, M.G.; Zhulina, E.; Kumacheva, E. Solvent-Mediated Isolation of Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles. Macromolecules 2020, 53(11), 4533. 
  8. Yu, Q.; Roberts, M.G.; Pearce, S.; Oliver, A.M.; Zhou, H.; Allen, C.; Manners, I.; Winnik, M.A. Rodlike Block Copolymer Micelles of Controlled Length in Water Designed for Biomedical Applications. Macromolecules 2019, 52(14), 5231.