We have a bunch of projects that need you and your skills. No
matter if you are just out of first year looking for your first
research lab experience, or a seasoned fourth-year student looking for
a challenging project to cap your undergraduate career we have
something for you. Many of these projects have come along as a
result of collaborations where we will make something that others will
use in their projects, or where others have made something that we have
the unique facilities to measure. This should be clear from the
notes on each project, as should the balance between synthetic and
analytical work, and the level of prior expertise required to have a
happy and productive experience. Some projects can be combined
and some have interesting directions to run with. Please contact
to discuss how this can work.
The projects are roughly designed to fit into the Research courses Chem
298, Chem 398, Chem 498, and/or Chem 499. The number gives the
level of expectation and assessments will vary in the same
proportion. Usually you’ll do 6 hours of lab work/week for one term (2
terms for 499). There will be lots of supervision and the group
meetings will allow you to find out what else is going on and to
develop your presentation skills. At the end you will have a nice entry for your resume that will serve you well as you
advance in your career.
Cationic lipids
Group members are working on novel lipids for a range of applications in stabilizing bilayer membranes and as conjugates
to assist in delivering bioactive molecules into cells. One productive group of compounds has terminal double bonds which can
undergo metathesis to generate macrocyclic lipids. Both the acyclic and cyclic lipids are interesting.
The examples made so far contain long alkyl chains (C16) which in turn need a specific synthesis. There are commercially available precursors that are shorter (C11, C8). The question is: are these compounds active? The goal of this project is to find out. The example shown contains the C11 chain and it should be easy to make these compounds using the worked out methods to related targets.
(298, 398, 498 or 499; almost entirely synthesis to start)
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Guanidinium carriers in supported liquid membranes
Over the past decade we have made numerous guanidinium salts as
components for dissolved oxygen sensors and as biocides. In the past year we have established that
they behave as carriers in membranes for the exchange of chloride and nitrate. We also
know that they show special selectivity for hydroxide ions over
chloride ions (the basis of the dissolved oxygen sensor), but their
overall activity and selectivity to other anions is not known. The goal of this project
is to fill that void.
There is reason to be optimistic that some unusual
selectivities might be uncovered as guanidinium shows a propensity to
form a pair of charged hydrogen bonds with carboxyates, sulfates, and
phosphates. Of particular interest is uncovering ways to selectively
transport chiral carboxylates such as lactate as prelude to using the
system a means to recover specific components from fermentation broths.
{298/398/498/499: Synthesis and transport analytical chemistry.}
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Redox-switched ion channels
Ion channels that respond to external stimuli are common in nature
but
rare in the synthetic ion channels literature. The goal of this project
is to lay the groundwork for a channel that will respond to oxidants
and reductants. Imagine a channel-forming compound that forms a
particular type of channel when oxidized but changes or becomes
inactive when reduced. The design is based on our known oligoester
bolaamphiphiles (two-headed amphiphiles) where the central core would
be modified to a quinone-hydroquinone.
The approach would be to prepare the core unit (known compound)
and
then use the chemistry already developed to prepare the target. In
addition to examining transport of the reduced and oxidized forms in
vesicles and by voltage-clamp, the electrochemistry of the compound or
the initial core could be examined using cyclic voltametry. We do not
know which way the transport will be affected. Will the reduced form be
a poor channel due to the OH groups in a poor location in the membrane?
Or will it be an improved transporter as the OH groups will hydrogen
bond to rigidify the central unit. There’s only one way to find out.
{499/498: synthesis and a range of ion channel and
electrochemical analyses.}
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