Patent ID: 8415449

Claim:
A polymer comprising repeating units having structures independently selected from Formula (I) and Formula (Ia): for which the variables are defined as follows: Ar is a phenylene ring optionally substituted with from one to four substituents independently selected from the group consisting of halogen, halomethyl, halomethoxy, methyl, methoxy, thiomethyl, nitro, sulfoxide and sulfonyl; R 1 is X—(CH 2 ) i i is an integer selected from 1 through 4; X, X 1 , X 2 and X 3 are independently selected from the group consisting of O, S and NR 3 ; R 2 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl groups containing from 1 to 30 carbon atoms, or R 2a is an alkylene group covalently bonded to both the NR 2 nitrogen atom and AA, so that —N—R 2a -AA- define a heterocyclic ring; R 3 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl groups containing from 1 to 30 carbon atoms; AA has a pendant COOR 4 group in which R 4 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, alkyl, heteroalkyl and alkylaryl groups containing up to 30 carbon atoms and alkyl-terminated poly(alkylene oxide) groups of molecular weight 100 to 10,000; AA and X 3 H of Formula I are selected so that (R 2 —HN—)AA-X 3 H defines an —X 3 H substituted amino acid and AA and X 3 H of Formula Ia are selected so that defines an X 3 H— substituted amino acid; A 1 at each occurrence is independently selected from: a bond, R 10 is selected from H, C 1 -C 30 alkyl, alkenyl or alkynyl and C 2 -C 30 heteroalkyl; heteroalkenyl or heteroalkynyl; and R 12 is selected from C 1 -C 30 alkylene, alkenylene or alkynylene, C 1 -C 30 heteroalkylene, heteroalkenylene or heteroalkynylene, C 5 -C 30 heteroalkylarylene, heteroalkenylarylene or heteroalkynylarylene, C 6 -C 30 alkylarylene, alkenylarylene or alkynylarylene, and C 5 -C 30 heteroarylene; wherein said polymer has a glass transition temperature or crystalline melting temperature greater than 37° C. when fully hydrated in said PBS solution at 37° C. and said Formula (I) and Formula (Ia) variables are selected so that monomers comprising said Formula (I) and Formula (Ia) repeating units have a solubility in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (0.1 M, pH 7.4) at 37° C. of at least about 3 mg/mL.