Staff

UEKI TakeshiVisiting Associate Professor

Laboratory
Laboratory of Functional Soft Matter
Research Theme
Preparation of cell-scaffold materials based on the precise synthesis of polymers and solvent engineering
Research Keywords

Living radical polymerization, Block copolymer, Gel, Self-organization, Cell scaffold, Rheology, Mechanobiology

Overview of Research

Our group develops material platform that brings out the mechanical function of polymer gel by tailoring polymer network design based on precise synthesis of polymers (ATRP, RAFT polymerization etc.) and solvent engineering. We aim at realizing a new type of scaffold material that leads to the fate of cell, by desingning structure and dynamics in nano-scale synchronized with macroscopic mechanical properties of soft matter.

Charge

  • School of Science:
    No
  • Graduate School of Life Science:
    Division of Soft Matter, Functional Soft Matter (Inter-field Cooperation with NIMS)

Message

The actors who stand on the stage of “polymer gel” are “polymer network” and “liquid” that swells it. On this stage, “polymer network” has been the main role for a long time. However, when we spotlight the “liquid” that is always devoted to bi-players, I expect that the new world of soft matter immediately open up. Why don’t we change the world with our soft matter?

Representative Publications

  1. T. Ueki, K. Uto, S. Yamamoto, R. Tamate, Y. Kamiyama, X. Jia, K. Mianami, K. Ariga, H. Noguchi, H. Wang, J. Nakanishi, “Ionic liquid interface as a cell scaffold”, Adv. Mater., 2310105 (2024) 2)
  2. R. Tamate, T. Ueki, “Adaptive ion-gels: Stimuli-resnponsive and self-healing ion gels”, The Chem. Rec., e202300043 (2023).
  3. Y. Kamiyama, R. Tamate, T. Hiroi, S. Samitsu, K. Fujii, T. Ueki, “Highly stretchable and self-healable polymer gels from physical entanglements of ultrahigh molecular weight polymers”, Sci. Adv., 8, 8582-8590 (2022).
  4. Yuji Kamiyama, Ryota Tamate, Kenta Fujii, Takeshi Ueki “Controlling mechanical properties of ultrahigh molecular weight ion gels by chemical structure of ionic liquids and monomers”, Soft Matter, 18, 8582-8590 (2022)
  5. Kenta Homma, Alice C. Chang, Shota Yamamoto, Ryota Tamate, Takeshi Ueki, Jun Nakanishi “Design of azobenzene-bearing hydrogel with photoswitchable mechanics driven by photo-induced phase transition for in vitro disease modeling” Acta Biomaterialia 132, 103-113 (2021)
  6. Toshiki Yoshizawa, Michika Onoda, Takeshi Ueki, Ryota Tamate, Aya Mizutani Akimoto, Ryo Yoshida “Fabrication of self-oscillating micelles with a built-in oxidizing agent” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 59, 3871-3875 (2020)
  7. Michika Onoda, Takeshi Ueki, Ryota Tamate, Mitsuhiro Shibayama, Ryo Yoshida “Amoeba-like self-oscillating polymeric fluids with autonomous sol-gel transition”, Nature Commun., 8, 15862 (2017).
  8. Timothy P. Lodge, Takeshi Ueki “Mechanically tunable, readily processable ion gels by self-assembly of block copolymers in ionic liquids”, Acc. Chem. Res., 49, 2107-2114 (2016).

Affiliation

  • National Institute for Materials Science, Research Center for Macromolecules and Biomaterials, Mechanobiology Group