The Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program support Professor David B Smithrud, of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati for research that expands on a recent accomplishment in his group that created artificial transporters to deliver materials into cells via host-guest complexes. The hypothesis that hosts adjust their recognition elements to maximize favorable interactions with a guest to accommodate the change in evironment will be tested by experiments described in the proposal. Professor Smithrud will explore the transfer mechanism and the ability of hosts to act as transporters by delivering various peptides into eukaryotic cells. The transport agents are a breakthrough in the field of cellular delivery agents. This efficient delivery system will benefit research groups that investigate intracellular interactions between biomolecules. This research program is a natural fit with research groups who design and discover peptides or peptidomimetics that are bioactive through cell surface targeting or intracellular inhibition. Once these peptides are available, the transporters can be linked to the targeting peptides and deliver the inhibitors. Medical research will benefit greatly once the transporters have an operational cell targeting mechanism.
With the support of the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program, Professor David B Smithrud of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati is developing a research program that may become a key component to the recent initiative launched by the State of Ohio to develop biotechnology in the Cincinnati region. The projects are designed to quickly provide students skills in a wide variety of current techniques and instrumentation, and knowledge in a variety of disciplines, such as synthetic chemistry, molecular recognition, and biochemistry. Projects have also been designed to fit with Professor Smithrud's "Introducing Students to Novel Experimentation" (ISNEx) project, an outreach program devoted to encouraging high school students, especially ones who are currently underrepresented in the sciences, to pursue a career in science and increase their science-literacy.
