Christina Cooley
Trinity University, TX·Chemistry·Early-career
Detecting very small amounts of a molecule, such as a disease marker in a medical sample, often requires turning a weak signal into a strong one. This project explores a chemical way to amplify signals: polymers that light up as they grow.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
Biochemistry
- Topics
fluorogenic polymers
fluorogenic polymerization
signal amplification
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Identify dark monomers that produce fluorogenic polymers in aqueous solution using ARGET atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a controlled chain-growth method run with a regenerated catalyst.
- Develop synthetic approaches for fluorogenic polymerization in open air by reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT), a controlled method that usually requires oxygen-free conditions.
- Reveal how polymerization kinetics govern polymer length and fluorescence brightness, so that emitted light can be correlated with initiator concentration.
- Design a fluorogenic signal-amplification platform for qualitative and quantitative detection of analytes and receptor-ligand binding interactions.
More about the research
Polymers are long molecules built by linking many small units called monomers. In fluorogenic polymerization, the monomers are "dark" and give off no fluorescence on their own. As many of them join into a chain, visible fluorescence switches on and grows brighter as the chain lengthens.
Why it matters
Signal-amplified sensing could make it possible to detect very small amounts of biomolecules, with potential uses such as medical diagnosis based on biomarkers. Polymers that light up in proportion to how far a reaction has run, and that can be made in water and open air, could offer simpler routes to sensitive, quantitative detection.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Austin Evans
University of Florida, FL·Chemistry·Early-career
Measure how polymer molecular weight, topology, and corona chemistry, controlled through controlled radical polymerization, govern diffusion, electrode sorption, and electrolysis rates of N-hydroxyphthalimide ester-functionalized (meth)acrylates.
Loi Do
University of Houston, TX·Chemistry
Develop a cation-exchange strategy in which an olefin polymerization catalyst switches between monometallic and bimetallic forms during chain growth. The goal is controlled polymers with many chains per metal site.
Dominik Konkolewicz
Miami University-Oxford, OH·Chemistry
Synthesize a new class of polymers using controlled polymerization to tune chain length, charge and hydrophobicity, and test which designs self-assemble with lipids into well-defined discs tens of nanometers across.
The school
Trinity University: 3 labs on PI Pages, $6M a year on research.
Reach out
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