General Synthesis of Sequence Defined Dendrimers
Abstract
Dendrimers are branched, highly ordered, polymeric molecules. Sequence defined dendrimers differ from classical dendrimers. Using amino acids as the branches, protein-like structures can be made. The branched dendrimer structures could be advantageous to the typical linear structure of proteins. So far the functionality of dendrimers has been limited because the synthesis of fully sequence-defined, asymmetric dendrimers (with all units unique) has not yet been accomplished. Using EDCI coupling and thiol-lactone click chemistry we will explore, for the first time, how these complex structures with amino acid branches can be made. My summer research aimed to yield a second-generation dendrimer.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Severin Schneebeli
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Biochemistry
Primary Research Category
Health Sciences
General Synthesis of Sequence Defined Dendrimers
Dendrimers are branched, highly ordered, polymeric molecules. Sequence defined dendrimers differ from classical dendrimers. Using amino acids as the branches, protein-like structures can be made. The branched dendrimer structures could be advantageous to the typical linear structure of proteins. So far the functionality of dendrimers has been limited because the synthesis of fully sequence-defined, asymmetric dendrimers (with all units unique) has not yet been accomplished. Using EDCI coupling and thiol-lactone click chemistry we will explore, for the first time, how these complex structures with amino acid branches can be made. My summer research aimed to yield a second-generation dendrimer.