Project Info


Things Fall Apart: Designing Materials that Break Down with Specific Chemical Agents

Dylan Domaille | ddomaille@mines.edu

We are designing new molecular switches that selectively degrade in the presence of reactive oxygen species. This is important because reactive oxygen species (ROS) are present in high concentrations in diseased tissue marked by inflammation. By developing these molecular switches, we can deliver drugs and imaging agents specifically to diseased tissue, even if the agent is administered systemically. We have an ongoing collaboration with Children’s Hospital and active in vivo mouse studies to showcase our strategy. Other applications involve inventing selective fluorophores that become fluorescent in the presence of certain ROS.

More Information

http://domaillelab.com

Grand Engineering Challenge: Engineer better medicines

Student Preparation


Qualifications

A strong foundation in chemical principles and organic chemistry. Materials science is useful, especially a knowledge of rheology.

Time Commitment

30 hours/month

Skills/Techniques Gained

Small-molecule organic synthesis and characterization (multinuclear NMR), UV-vis and kinetic measurements; physical organic principles. How to design experiments, explore hypotheses, and operate safely in a research labroatory.

Mentoring Plan

The undergraduate will be paired with a graduate student, who is an expert in all aspects of the work and who has generated our preliminary results. We have weekly subgroup meetings and biweekly group meetings. The student will be expected to attend and participate in these meetings by providing weekly updates on their progress.