Biomimetic Oligomers

Novel Polymeric Materials for Genetic Analyses by Microchannel Electrophoresis

Free-Solution Conjugate Electrophoresis for Microchannel DNA Separations

Ongoing research in the Barron group involves the design, synthesis, physical and chemical characterization, and testing of novel polymeric materials for a variety of biotechnological and biomedical applications. Depending upon the particular project, the interdisciplinary work undertaken by Chemical Engineering graduate students and postdocs will intersect the domains of polymer chemistry and polymer physics, biotechnology and biomedical engineering, and/or synthetic bioorganic chemistry and biophysics.

We are developing peptides and peptoids, or poly-N-substituted glycines, as biomimetic materials for medical applications; these materials are a subset of Biomimetic Oligomers Presently we are working to create novel lung surfactant protein mimics, a fibrin-mimetic 'surgical glue' for tissue engineering and drug delivery, and bioavailable mimics of antimicrobial peptides.

We are developing Novel Polymeric Materials for Genetic Analyses by Microchannel Electrophoresis, for the high-efficiency separation of DNA and proteins.

We are also developing a novel technology called Free Solution Conjugate Electrophoresis for DNA Microchannel Electrophoresis, in which DNA is tethered to proteins or polypeptoids to facilitate its size-separation. FSCE promises to provide a new method of DNA sequencing for capillaries or microfluidic chips that will eliminate the need for DNA separation matrices ("gels").