Tag: Geri Richmond

Synthesis of Diindenoanthracene Derivatives for use in Organic Field-Effect Transistors

Presenter: Victoria Stanfill

Faculty Mentor: Michael Haley, Geri Richmond

Presentation Type: Poster 39

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Chemistry

Funding Source: Presidential Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, $5000

Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are a type of organic electronic device that determine how and where charge flows throughout a system. They are important to the electronic industry because they are longer lasting and cheaper to synthesize than traditional silicon field-effect transistors. OFETs are ranked on their charge mobility, the speed and quality of the charge transfer. Diindenoanthracenes are a type of organic small molecule with potential to be used in OFETs because of their biradical character, giving them the ability to transport charge. Our research focuses on synthesizing a variety of diindenoanthracene derivatives so we have a large range of molecules with different electronic properties to test in devices. The ultimate goal is to increase the charge mobility of these molecules so that these electronic devices are comparable to traditional inorganic electronics. So far we have created one new diindenoanthracene which has yet to be tested in devices, but we are working towards creating a more generalized synthesis method to make it possible to add a variety of substituents to the general diindenoanthracene scaffold.

Development of a Pull-down Procedure for Isolating Platinated Cellular Molecules

Presenter: Anna Hickey

Faculty Mentor: Victoria DeRose, Geri Richmond

Presentation Type: Poster 69

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Biochemistry

Funding Source: Presidential Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, University of Oregon, $5,000.00 research stipend; Scholarships for Oregon Scientists, University of Oregon and National Science Foundation, $2,000.00 research stipend

Cisplatin is a commonly used anti-cancer therapeutic; however, its mechanism of inducing cell death is not well understood. In order to identify and isolate cisplatin’s cellular targets for characterization, our lab utilizes the
“click” reaction (a physiologically stable and high yielding reaction that produces no harmful byproducts) to attach fluorescent compounds or other small molecules to platinated cellular targets such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. In this project, I optimized an in vitro pull-down procedure using streptavidin-coated magnetic beads to separate platinated cellular targets from unplatinated molecules. I first treated target DNA with a click-functionalized platinum reagent, then clicked that compound to a double-stranded DNA linker. The opposite end of this linker contains a biotin molecule, which interacts strongly with the streptavidin-coated magnetic beads through the streptavidin-biotin interaction. Using a powerful magnet, I separated platinated and clicked DNA attached to the beads from unreacted DNA, then confirmed the desired species of DNA was pulled down using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), a method by which DNA or proteins can be separated by size. I determined that increasing the incubation time of the beads with the platinated DNA increased elution yields. Furthermore, elution temperatures above 90° C also increase the elution yield. Optimizing this pull-down technology will allow us to better characterize platinated molecules, and will ultimately improve our understanding of cisplatin’s cell-death inducing mechanisms.