Syntheses and properties of near-IR BODIPY-based fluorophores

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。该项目旨在合成和评估一系列新的荧光染料，用于生物成像、生物分析或医学方面的潜在应用。与目前可用的染料相比，这些新材料提供了许多独特的机会；它们可以从商业上可用的化合物中合成，只需很少的步骤，可以使其成为水溶性的，并将具有非常高的荧光量子效率和光化学稳定性。在完全合成之后，新材料将被提纯，并将研究它们的化学和光物理性质。最有希望的染料将与生物分子结合，如肽、蛋白质或抗体，并将研究它们在生物成像、生物分析或医学中的应用潜力。这个多学科的项目可能会导致发现新的荧光染料作为生物标记物或抗癌药物，并将在有机和生物结合化学、细胞和分子生物学、蛋白质组学、生物医学成像、基于荧光的检测技术、药物发现和临床医学等领域产生广泛影响。主要研究员Vicente博士是少数族裔拉丁裔/西班牙裔教授，目前是路易斯安那州立大学化学系唯一的女性全职教授。Vicente博士在参与多学科项目方面有着良好的记录，并高度致力于扩大路易斯安那州立大学女性和少数族裔学生对研究的参与。她目前在路易斯安那州立大学领导着最大化学生多样性计划，该计划为来自代表性不足群体的合格本科生提供跨学科研究培训，同时加强化学和基础科学的多样性。Vicente博士和她的学生将参加路易斯安那州立大学已经建立的几个高影响力的教育和推广项目，并将基于基本的科学概念，如光与物质和颜色的相互作用，为路易斯安那州的学校开展推广，这些将被纳入路易斯安那州立大学已经建立的服务学习活动中。

"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.