CAREER: Inorganic Scaffolds as Activity Based Probes for 19F Magnetic Resonance Biosensing

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In this CAREER project, funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics & Mechanisms-B Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Emily Que of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin is developing new complexes for potential future use in medical applications such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Organisms and cells must exert precise control over their environments to maintain their natural balance. Professor Que and her group are developing metal complexes containing fluorine as these complexes are sensitive to potential changes in the cellular environment. The long-term goal of developing such complexes is for use in vivo imaging of biological changes using fluorine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an emerging "hot-spot" (localized) imaging technique that takes advantage of the fact that fluorine is not normally present in the cells of the human body. This project lies at the interface of synthetic inorganic chemistry and biology and will provide training to graduate and undergraduate students. Further educational impacts will be achieved through a research-focused training program with community college students including summer research internships, with the goal of recruiting this cohort of students into careers in STEM. Organisms and cells must exert precise control over their redox environments to maintain homeostasis. In order to gain further insight into the roles of redox changes in biology, Professor Que and her group are developing fluorinated metal complexes that display changes in fluorine NMR/MRI signals in response to changes in redox environment. The goal of this project is to understand how ligand structure influences both the reactivity and fluorine magnetic resonance properties of first row transition metal complexes (copper, iron and cobalt), and to integrate this research in inorganic bioimaging probe development through a community college research program. This project seeks to develop design principles for irreversible and reversible redox-active probes for bioreduction using copper and iron scaffolds. The researchers will also investigate how ligand modulation can improve the reactivity and fluorine magnetic resonance properties of fluorinated cobalt probes for biooxidation. They seek to improve recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups into STEM careers through hands-on a community college research program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.