Towards Unraveling Photoprotection in Skin Chromophores

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In this award, funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms (CSDM-A) Program of the Division of Chemistry, Professor Susanne Ullrich of the University of Georgia and her graduate student researchers are working to develop a better understanding of the photochemical processes underlying the protective properties of the molecular building blocks that make up eumelanin (the skin pigment in humans). Prof. Ullrich and her students will be collaborating on this project with the groups of Prof. Vasilios Stavros of the University of Warwick and Prof. Martin J. Paterson of Heriot-Watt University, both in the United Kingdom. Graduate students working on this project at the University of Georgia will receive excellent training in experimental and theoretical chemistry and will have the added benefit of working with some distinguished international scientists. Prof. Ullrich will also work on an educational project with Mr. Nick Barker, a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick, working with the Society of Physics Students at University of Georgia to develop a physics roadshow.Prof. Ullrich and her research group are conducting a series of experiments to study the photochemistry of the building blocks that make up the light-absorbing part of the skin pigment eumelanin, including 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI) and 5,6-dihydroxyindole carboxylic acid (DHICA). Among the experiments to be carried out are: (1) the gas phase time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of DHI and DHICA; (2) the gas phase time-resolved ion yield spectroscopy of both species; (3) the gas-phase time-resolved total kinetic energy release spectroscopy of the species; (4) the condensed phase transient ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy measurements of DHI and DHICA and (5) the transient infrared absorption spectroscopy measurements of both species in the condensed phase. Students working on this project will receive excellent training in chemical physics that will prepare them to become globally-engaged members of the technical workforce.