07/15/2024
By Kwok Fan Chow

The Kennedy College of Science, Department of Chemistry, invites you to attend a Ph.D. Dissertation defense by Harini Perera entitled “Magnetic Nanoparticle Affinity Probes: Design, Synthesis, and Capturing of Target Proteins in Bacteria.”

Degree: Doctoral
Location: Olney Room 518
Date: Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Time: 9 a.m.

Committee Chair:
Prof. Mingdi Yan, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Committee Members:

  • Prof. Olof Ramstrom, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Prof. Matthew Gage, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Prof. Marina Ruths, Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract:
Nanoparticles and nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems are emerging as promising alternatives to traditional antibiotics in the battle against antimicrobial resistance. The efficacy of these novel therapies hinges on the efficient uptake of nanoparticles by bacteria, a process that remains poorly understood. Various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, such as fluorescence microscopy, electron microscopy, and mass spectrometry, were employed to investigate the mechanisms and pathways involved in the interactions and uptake of nanoparticles. In this thesis, novel nanoparticle-based magnetic photoaffinity probes were designed and synthesized to capture the nanoparticle binding proteins, with the ultimate goal of biochemically mapping the transport of nanoparticles inside bacteria. We chose trehalose as the targeting ligand and mycobacteria as the model bacterium as previous studies conducted by us have shown that trehalose-conjugated nanoparticles show specific interactions with mycobacteria and nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems exhibited a higher antibacterial activity compared to the free drug due to functionalization with trehalose. Magnetic nanoparticles were chosen to facilitate the isolation of the captured proteins without additional affinity purification steps. This thesis will focus on the design of three generations of nanoprobes, their syntheses, and their characterizations. This nanoprobes were successfully used to capture mycobacterial proteins. The versatile nature of the nanoprobe is expected to facilitate the detection of receptors expressed on other cells by simply changing the ligand.

All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend.