Digital Commons Network^™

Design And Synthesis Of Lipid Probes Used For Membrane Derivatization And Fusion, Stuart Allen Whitehead

Doctoral Dissertations

Lipids control a variety of complex biological processes. Bulk lipids such as phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylserine (PS), and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) represent the major components of cellular membranes. In addition, unilamellar vesicles composed of lipids (liposomes) are valuable for delivery applications since they can encapsulate and transport drugs and other agents. In order to maximize delivery efficiency and target specific membranes, the ability to trigger and control vesicle-vesicle fusion is desirable. Such approaches generally seek to mimic the membrane fusion machinery present in nature while imparting specificity in the membranes that undergo fusion. The goal of this work is selective drug delivery …

Incorporating Carbon Nanotubes Into Carbon Fiber Via Surface Modification, Robert Benjamin Ripy

Masters Theses

Ever more advanced materials need to be designed to further the exploration of avenues of science and engineering. Metals and traditional composites are not meeting the needs of today’s stringent demands for lightweight and strong materials. There is a need for advanced materials that are lighter and stronger to replace conventional materials; carbon fiber composites became the obvious choice because of their outstanding mechanical properties. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber has reached its apex in terms of its strength to weight ratio. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offer a lightweight and potentially stronger alternative to PAN based fibers. However, it is difficult …

The Synthesis Of Serine Competitive Inhibitors To Limit The Impact Of Fungal Endocarditis, Michael R. Brouner

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Developing Synthetic Methods To Prepare Discrete Metal-Organic Nanotubes, Derek L. Mull

Masters Theses

Metal-organic nanotubes (MONTs) are an emerging class of discrete materials that are the 1D variant of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). MONTs have potential to become an alternative 1D material to carbon nanotubes, metal oxide nanotubes, and boron nitride nanotubes because they possess an organic ligand that can be functionalized and tuned for specific applications. Despite this potential, only a handful of structures have been reported and only two examples of discrete MONTs exist in the literature. It is thus imperative to develop general methods to prepare and characterize discrete MONTs to bring them to the forefront of the scientific literature.

Efforts …