Syntheses and properties of near-IR BODIPY-based fluorophores

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"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)".This project aims to synthesize and evaluate a new series of fluorescent dyes for potential applications in bioimaging, in bioanalyses or in medicine. These new materials offer a number of unique opportunities compared with currently available dyes; they can be synthesized from commercially available compounds in a small number of steps, can be rendered water-soluble, and will have very high fluorescence quantum efficiencies and photochemical stabilities. Following the total synthesis, the new materials will be purified, and their chemical and photophysical properties will be studied. The most promising dyes will be conjugated with a biomolecule, such as a peptide, protein or antibody, and their potential for application in bioimaging, bioanalyses or medicine will be investigated. This multi-disciplinary project will likely lead to the discovery of new fluorescent dyes for applications as biomarkers or as anti-cancer drugs and will have broad impacts in the fields of organic and bioconjugate chemistry, cell and molecular biology, proteomics, biomedical imaging, fluorescence-based detection technologies, drug discovery, and clinical medicine.The principal investigator, Dr. Vicente, is a minority Latino/Hispanic professor and currently the only woman full professor in the Department of Chemistry at Louisiana State University. Dr. Vicente has a strong track record of participation in multi-disciplinary projects and is highly committed to broaden the participation of woman and minority students in research at LSU. She is currently leading the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity Program at LSU, which provides to qualified undergraduates from under-represented groups interdisciplinary research training while enhancing diversity in chemistry and the basic sciences. Dr. Vicente and her students will participate in several high impact education and outreach programs already established at LSU, and will develop demonstrations based on basic scientific concepts, such as interactions of light with matter and color, for outreach to Louisiana schools that will be incorporated into already established service learning activities at LSU.