Our group is interested in novel soft nanomaterials.  Current research includes the development of fabrication methods based on guided assembly, chemical, structural and functional characterization of nanopatterned materials, and their application in nanobioreactors and biosensors.  Soft nanomaterials have tremendous potential in a broad variety of applications ranging from fundamental studies of nanofluidics and development of advanced separation technologies to fabrication of nanobioreactors and design of novel implantable biodevices.  This interdisciplinary work is performed in collaboration with researchers from Chemistry, Physics, and Biomedical Engineering departments at UofM and research groups from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Rhodes College.  Research projects can be tailored to individual interests and allow students to gain experience in polymer chemistry, organic synthesis, biochemical and biophysical techniques, and electron microscopy.

Recently, we formed a nanoscale science interdisciplinary research team.

Currently our work is focused on the following projects:

• Synthetic Channels for Organic Molecules

• Nanochemistry in Organized Media

• Self-Assembling Receptors for Molecular Recognition and Catalysis

These interdisciplinary projects provide an opportunity to learn more about organic synthesis, spectroscopy (NMR, UV, and IR), chromatography, and some biochemical and biophysical techniques.

Publications
 

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Our goal is to develop synthetic channels for the transport of polar organic molecules across bilayer lipid membranes.  It is hard to overstate the importance of membrane and transport processes for life, since virtually all important cellular functions are intimately coupled with cellular membranes.  Artificial membrane systems are extremely important because they can contribute to the mechanistic understanding of channel proteins on the molecular level and form the basis for creating new pharmaceuticals and systems for drug delivery.  We are interested in developing synthetic channels for the transport of polar organic molecules such as amino acids, sugars, nucleotides, etc., across lipid bilayer membranes.  The transport will be achieved by the sequential binding of a transported molecule to the complimentary binding groups of the channel.  These channels will have a variety of applications in medicine and biotechnology.

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Nanochemistry is a rapidly growing area of research that emphasizes the synthesis of structures with sizes in the range of 1 to 100 nanometers.  Synthesis of these large structures requires novel methodologies.  Bilayers made of natural and synthetic amphiphiles will be used as organized media for the synthesis of nanostructures.   Bilayers will hold basic construction elements of nanostructures parallel to each other, while allowing some lateral movement in order to facilitate the reactions with the linkers.  Their usage will help to produce nanostructures with well-defined shape and solve solubility problems.  Template-assisted assembly will be used in the synthesis of three-dimensional structures.  This methodology will be applied to the synthesis of tubular membrane channels and other novel molecules with useful properties.

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The basic concept of self-assembly involves multiple monomers joining together by weak intermolecular forces to form a supramolecular structure which contains functions or activities in the assembled state that are not present in the monomer.  Self-assembly is particularly attractive in construction of complex molecular structures with useful properties such as receptors and enzyme models.  We plan to develop novel types of receptors in which the substrate recognition site will be formed by an assisted self-assembly of monomeric units attached to a platform.  Self-assembly will be facilitated by the coordination of flexible receptor arms around a cation.  Assisted self-assembly will solve the major problems of traditional self-assembly processes such as significant entropy losses and difficulties in controlling the shape of the self-assembled aggregate.  This will relieve the stringent constraints from the structure of self-assembling monomers and will allow the use of a variety of novel motifs in self-assembly.  Incorporation of a cation makes these receptors promising as metalloenzyme models.  Modular construction will allow for high-throughput screening of such receptors and catalysts.

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