Event
ChBE Seminar Series: Preethi Chandran
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Room 2108, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Building
Professor Ganesh Sriram
gsriram@umd.edu
About Buffering Polymers and Squishy DNA Nanoparticles
Preethi Chandran
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
Howard University
DNA packs into compact nanometer-sized particles in the presence of cationic polymers. In this talk I will focus on our studies indenting different types of DNA nanoparticles in an Atomic Force Microscope. We report novel findings of non-homogenous packing and nanoparticle stiffness greater than polymeric gels. I will also talk about the intricate interplay between the buffering and polyelectrolyte dynamics of Polyethylenimine, a cationic polymer commonly used to produce DNA nanoparticles. Our studies impact the fields of biopolymer self-assembly and the development of drug-delivery vehicles.
