This Study presented the investigations on the synthesis of a novel biodegradable block copolymer of pluronic-b-poly(L-lysine)(pluronic-b-PLL), which combined the characteristics of aliphatic polyester and poly(amino acids). The synthesis work started with end-capping of pluronic with N-t-butoxycarbonyl-L-phenylalanine using dicyclohexylcarbodiimide in the presence of 4-dimethylaminopyridine, followed by a deprotection process to obtain the amino-terminated pluronic; the new primary amino group in the modified pluronic initiated ring-opening polymerization of amino acid N-carboxyanhydride, which afforded the pluronic-b-poly(N-epsilon-(Z)-L-lysine) block copolymer. Finally, removal of the side-chain N-epsilon-(carbonybenzoxy) end protecting groups yields the block copolymer of pluronic-b-PLL. The products were characterized by H-1-NMR, FTIR, DSC, and GPC. The block copolymer micelle containing the anticancer drug paclitaxel was prepared by the double emulsion method. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 112: 3371-3379, 2009