ORGN 789 |
| Eumelanin, the black to brown human pigment, is a nano-structured biomaterial that is intimately involved in skin cancer. Known to bind metals and organic compounds, eumelanin has fascinating properties that can be exploited for environmental applications. Structurally, eumelanin is a supramolecular assembly of semiconducting organic nanoparticles derived from mixtures of heterogeneous oligomers of four to eight dihydroxyindole units. We are investigating combinatorial polymerization methods to generate useful eumelanin-like materials for environmental remediation, as well as developing synthetic methods to generate well-defined dihydroxyindole oligomers. Self-assembly of these oligomers will be studied to address the question of how their molecular structure influences the eumelanin superstructure and resulting properties, both to inform our remediation efforts and to further elucidate eumelanin's role in skin cancer. This presentation will describe our initial results in these endeavors including the investigation of synthetic eumelanin as a lead-binding agent, successful indole-indole Suzuki couplings, and related palladium-catalyzed chemistry. |
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Molecular Recognition and Self-Assembly
8:00 AM-11:20 AM, Thursday, March 29, 2007 McCormick Place Lakeside -- Room E351, Level 3, Oral
Division of Organic Chemistry |