This National Science Foundation Young Investigator project is in the general area of analytical and surface chemistry and in the subfield of bioanalytical chemistry. During the five-year tenure of this award, Professor Kennedy and his students will pursue the development of electrochemical microsensors and microcolumn separations, such as capillary chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, for the investigation of peptide neurotransmitters and hormones. A major goal of the research is the detection and continuous monitoring of zeptomole quantities of peptides at single cells and in vivo with millisecond time resolution and submicron spatial resolution. %%% The successful attainment of the goals of this project should enable the broad advancement of bioanalytical chemistry, in particular the analysis of minute quantities of neuropeptides and hormones. The proposed methods, including microscale sequencing and microcolumn separations, will allow the detection of peptides in specific regions of the brain or in single cells.
