Andee Wallace (VOIGT LAB)

Design of Silica Structures Using Post-Translationally Modified Peptides from Diatoms

Development of advanced functional materials with highly organized nano- and microstructures are of increasing demand across the medical, optical, energy, and mechanical fields. As part of the Voigt Lab, I aim to understand nature’s mechanisms for building complex materials and apply them in a controlled manner to synthesize new biomaterials. This talk will introduce my work using a silaffin peptide from diatoms to establish design principles that will enable the synthesis of silica structures with defined size, shape, and pore structures.

Brett Geiger (GRODZINSKY & HAMMOND LABS)

Design of Cartilage Penetrating Nanoparticles

Traumatic joint injuries lead to a dramatically higher risk of early development of osteoarthritis, a debilitating disease marked by extreme pain in the affected joint. Drugs to slow the onset of the disease following joint injury exist, but cannot reside long enough in the joint space to have long term therapeutic benefit. This problem can be solved by linking these drugs to a nanoparticle capable of penetrating and residing in cartilage tissue. Progress in designing and validating such a nanoparticle will be presented in this talk.