Debbie C. Crans and Nancy E. Levinger, Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, are supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program for fundamental studies exploring how metal complexes interact with lipids. They will synthesize vanadium(IV) and vanadium(V) complexes with ligands such as picolinate, dipicolinate, and acetylacetonate. They will study their properties in aqueous solution, in the presence of dispersed lipids, reverse micelles, vesicles and liposomes. The tools for characterization of the systems include multinuclear NMR, EPR, UV/visible, IR and Raman spectroscopy. Pulsed field gradient NMR and time-resolved anisotropy will also measure interactions of the metal complexes with the lipid assemblies. The potential transport of the metal complexes across lipid bilayers will be measured using surface second harmonic generation.
Metal ions are involved in many metabolic processes. Vanadium complexes have been shown to normalize elevated glucose levels in diabetic humans. This project will provide insight into the fundamental aspects of metal complex interactions and transport across bilayers that are critical for the design of new therapeutics for diabetes and other metabolic disorders. The project will engage students, both undergraduate and graduate, and enhance the visibility of women in bioinorganic and biophysical research using a variety of state-of-the-art spectroscopic tools.
