Self-assembled monolayers as tunable chemical platforms broadly enable the study of the interaction between biological species and synthetic surfaces. Unlike small molecule chemistry where the freely diffusible product can interact with biological targets as an inhibitor or probe, interfacial chemistry allows for the controlled and multi-valent presentation of ligands to either approximate native interfacial binding phenomena (i.e. antibodies binding to receptor-containing cell surfaces) or amplify binding with a particular analyte. In addition, a host of analytical tools have been established for transducing the changes in surface properties that accompany surface binding events. The following work builds on these features of self-assembled monolayers toward 1) approximating dynamic cell adhesion / migration behavior with light-responsive cell adhesion peptide-presenting surfaces and 2) selectively sensing blood glucose using a bis-boronic acid-based receptor combined with SERS, a sensitive surface-based Raman spectroscopy technique. For the first piece, by synthetically incorporating a suitable photo-protecting group on our adhesion ligand (RGD) surface, we patterned two independent cells and light-initiated cell-cell contact to achieve successful gap junction intercellular communication. For the second piece, analog synthesis and SAR studies in solution yielded an optimized thiolated bis-boronic acid, which, upon immobilization to a surface, successfully reported a concentration-dependent analyte signature in response to glucose.

Last modified

• 09/30/2019

Creator

• Pradeep Bugga

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-81bv-9y50

Subject

• Chemistry

Keyword

• Chemistry

Date created

• 1/1/2018

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright