Education

B.S., Chemical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2003
Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2008
2nd Year FIRST Postdoctoral Fellow, 2011 - present

Research Statement

Current research activities include: (1) optimizing the polymer synthesis techniques for synthesizing thermally-responsive hyperbranched poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) polymers for cancer drug-delivery applications, and (2) modifying the polymerization mechanism for deoxygenated hemoglobin in sickle cell anemic hemoglobins, to influence the mutated cells to recover cell membrane elasticity during the reoxygenation process and maintain erythrocyte deoxygenation/oxygenation reversibility, which will extend the life cycle of sickle cell anemic erythrocytes.

Publications

Gozen, A.O., Gaines, M.K., Hamersky, M.W., Maniadis, P., Rasmussen, K.Ø., Smith, S.D., Spontak, R.J. (2010) Controlling the phase behavior of block copolymers via sequential block growth. Polymer. 51:5304-5308.

Gaines, M.K., Smith, S.D., Samseth, J., Khan, S.A., and Spontak, R.J. (2010) Nanoparticle Network Formation in Nanostructured and Disordered Block Copolymer Matrices. Nanoscale Res. Lett. 5:1712.

Bowman, M.K., Kane, L. and Spontak, R.J. (2009) α-Methylstyrene. In: Polymer Data Handbook, 2nd ed. (J.E. Mark, Ed.) Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 856-868.

Gaines, M.K., Douglas, J.F., Karim, A., Spontak, R J. (2008) The Phase Behavior of Inorganic Nanoparticles on Multi-Component Polymer Systems. Soft Matter. 4:1609-1612.

Spontak R. J., Shankar, R., Bowman, M.K., Krishnan, A.S., Hamersky, M.W., Samseth, J., Bockstaller, M.R., Rasmussen, K.Ø. (2006) Selectivity- and Size-Induced Segregation of Molecular and Nanoscale Species in Microphase-Ordered Triblock Copolymers. Nano. Lett. 6:2115.

Smith, S.D., Hamersky, M.W., Bowman, M.K., Rasmussen, K.Ø., Spontak, R.J. (2006) Molecularly Asymmetric Triblock Copolymers as a Single-Molecule Route to Ordered Bidisperse Polymer Brushes. Langmuir. 22:6465.

Gil, E.S., Frankowski, D.J., Bowman, M.K., Gozen, A.O., Hudson, S.M., and Spontak, R.J. (2006) Mixed Protein Blends Composed of Gelatin and Bombyx mori Silk Fibroin: Effects of Solvent-Induced Crystallization and Composition," Biomacromolecules.7:728.

**Have published under both my maiden name “Bowman” and my married name “Gaines”.

Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Chemical Engineering & Biomolecular Engineering
311 Ferst Drive, NW
Atlanta, GA 30332
Phone: (404) 385-3864
Emails: michelle.k.gaines@emory.edu or michelle.gaines@chbe.gatech.edu