Minority Predoctoral Fellowship Program

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Rapid diagnosis and continuous monitoring of disease states is currently limited by the need to access a major clinical chemistry laboratory. Polymerized Crystalline Colloidal Arrays (PCCAs) developed in the Asher group have the potential to serve as optical detectors of a wide variety of clinically important analytes. PCCAs are hydrogels that Bragg diffract visible light due to the highly ordered structure of their colloidal particles. Swelling of the hydrogel causes a redshift of the diffracted light. By functionalizing the polymer backbone of the hydrogel with enzymes and small molecule ligands, swelling can be induced in response to the presence of a variety of clinically relevant analytes. This PCCA sensing motif will be developed to detect molecular markers of cardiac ischemia. These sensors will be optimized for point of care applications for situations in which a clinical chemistry lab is not available or expedient. The research will involve the synthesis and characterization of novel polymeric materials, as well as validation of their utility as clinical sensors. The proposed development of PCCAs for clinical applications will combine fundamental materials studies and optimization studies with in vitro trials.