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Background:
David Kryscio is originally
from Lexington, Kentucky. He graduated with
a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the
University of Kentucky in May 2006. As an
undergraduate he researched the use of moiety
imprinted polymers for drug delivery applications
under Dr. J. Zach Hilt as well as the structural
equivalence of pharmaceutical topical formulations
under Dr. Michael Jay and Dr. J. Zach Hilt.
He also received an MBA from the University
of Kentucky in August 2007. He is currently
pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering
at the University of Texas at Austin under
the direction of Dr. Peppas as a National
Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.
Research Summary
Molecular recognition or molecular
imprinting is an emerging field of
interest in which a polymer network is
formed with specific recognition for a
desired template molecule. Briefly,
functional monomers are chosen which
exhibit chemical structures designed to
interact with the template molecule via
covalent or non-covalent chemistry. The
monomers are then polymerized in the
presence of the desired template, the
template is subsequently removed, and
the product is a polymer with binding
sites specific to the template molecule
of interest. This technique has been
successfully applied to small molecule
templates in the areas of separations,
solid-phase extractions, artificial
enzymes, and chemical sensors.
The ability to selectively recognize a
specific protein in a complex solution
(such as blood) would have many
applications, including serving as a
biosensor. Protein imprinted polymers
are ideal replacements to their
biological counterparts as they can be
easily tailored to a variety of
templates, are inexpensive and
straightforward to prepare, have greater
stability in harsh conditions, and are
reusable. Because of this, protein
imprinting has gained a great deal of
attention from the scientific community;
however, efforts to do so have achieved
limited success due to the inherent
properties of proteins, which include
size, complexity, conformation, and
solubility.
The objective of
this research is to develop biomimetic
recognitive hydrogel polymer networks
that can be applied to biosensing or
other nanoscale applications when
integrated with a nanodevice. Towards
this goal, we aim to integrate
recognitive hydrogels with
ultrasensitive microcantilever
transducers which can be used to detect
low concentration protein biomarkers in
a simple, inexpensive, and robust
manner.
Publications
W.B. Liechty, D.R. Kryscio, B.V.
Slaughter, and N.A. Peppas. “Polymers
for Drug-Delivery Systems.” Annual
Reviews of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering (submitted).
D.R. Kryscio
and N.A. Peppas, “Mimicking Biological
Delivery Through Feedback-Controlled,
Recognitive Drug Release Systems Based
on Molecular Imprinting Methods”, AIChE
Journal 55, 1311-1324
(2009)
.
D.R. Kryscio,
P.M. Sathe, R. Lionberger, L. Yu, M.A.
Bell, M. Jay, J.Z. Hilt. “Spreadability
measurements to assess structural
equivalence (Q(3)) of topical
formulations - A technical note.” AAPS
PharmSciTech, 9, 84-86 (2008).
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