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Prof. Gregg Dieckmann '88 Wins Young Investigators Award

Prof. Gregg Dieckmann '88 Wins Young Investigators Award

April 18, 2005

gregg dieckman.jpgApril 18, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - Gregg R. Dieckmann, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas and 1988 graduate of DePauw University, is one of the recipients of a Young Investigators Award from the Human Frontier Science Program, an organization based in Strasbourg, France. Dieckmann will share the $1.1 million award with Alan B. Dalton, a lecturer in the department of physics at the University of Surrey in England, and Johnny Coleman, a lecturer in the physics department of the University of Dublin in Ireland. The three will conduct collaborative research of nanoparticles, with an emphasis on possible bio-medical applications of such particles and their potential effects on the human body.

Grants provided by the Human Frontier Science Program support basic research in the life sciences, with an emphasis on novel, innovative approaches that involve scientific exchanges across both national and disciplinary boundaries. Grant recipients, all of whom are promising scientists early in their Julian Centercareers, are expected to develop new lines of research through their collaboration.

Dr. Dieckmann and his colleagues plan to design and create proteins that will interact with carbon nanotubes, cylinders made of graphite that are many thousands of times thinner than a human hair and have remarkable electrical, thermal and structural properties. The proteins, amino acid sequences known as peptides, will be used to coat the nanotubes to allow them to be separated and more easily manipulated, as well as to explore their use in a range of molecular medical applications.

“One aspect of our research will involve targeting peptide-wrapped carbon nanotubes to specific cell types, with the intent of using the thermal properties of the nanotubes to destroy the targeted cells,” says Professor Dieckmann. “If successful, the research could lead to new, non-invasive treatments for cancer and other diseases.”

The trio of researchers also will assess what, if any, toxicological effects the peptide-wrapped carbon nanotubes have on living cells. Dieckmann hopes that by wrapping carbon nanotubes with peptides, the resulting combination will become more “bio-friendly,” thus expanding possible uses in the human body.

Read more in a news release posted at PhysOrg.com. Visit Gregg Dieckmann's Web page by clicking here.

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