Professor Lisa A. Holland of Kent State University is funded by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry CAREER program to study phospholipid bicelles as immobilized partitioning media for electrokinetic capillary chromotography. The work involves the characterization of the bicelle media in detail as a function of temperature, mixed micelle ratios, concentration and composition. Then the sieving capabilities of this material will be optimized for separation of polypeptides, proteins and DNA. The ability of bicelle solutions to incorporate receptor systems based on biotin-avidin chemistry will be utilized.
The educational component of this work focuses on the use of distance learning to initiate a research program in separations at Haskell Indian Nations University. The interest is in screening traditional tribal medicines for receptor affinity.
