Amelia Fuller
Santa Clara University, CA·Chemistry
Gold nanoparticles are extremely sensitive to light, which makes them useful materials for medical diagnostics and sensing. To work in water-rich settings such as body fluids, though, they need a coating of molecules.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
- Topics
gold nanoparticles
colloidal gold
nanoparticle stability
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Synthesize and purify dozens of sequence-specific peptoids, chains of N-substituted glycines, that carry a wide diversity of chemical groups, for use as coatings (capping ligands) on gold nanoparticles.
- Measure how well each peptoid keeps gold nanoparticles of different sizes from clumping in water containing salts and proteins.
- Identify the molecular features of peptoid coatings that give the best nanoparticle stability, producing predictive design guidelines.
More about the research
Without one, salts and proteins cause the particles to clump into useless, insoluble aggregates. A good coating packs tightly on the gold surface, keeps the particle dissolved and shields it from those triggers. This project asks which molecular features make the best coating.
Why it matters
Gold nanoparticles are used in medical diagnostics and sensing, but they clump and stop working in salty, protein-rich fluids. Design rules for peptoid coatings that keep them stable could make peptoid-coated nanoparticles practical in a wide range of sensing and diagnostic tests.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
Santa Clara University: 8 labs on PI Pages, $8M a year on research, 24 research doctorates a year.
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