Project title: Intercalation studies of anticancer drugs into layered inorganic nanomaterials
We are interested in developing nanocarriers made of inorganic layered structured materials (LSN), such as the layered zirconium phosphates (ZrP), acidic inorganic ion-exchange materials that can be synthesized as nanoparticles. The REU student will synthesize and spectroscopically characterize a series of metallocene-based anticancer drugs (ferrocene, molybdocene, and titanocene derivatives) intercalated into ZrP to prepare stable and controlled release drug carriers. The intercalation reaction results in nanoparticles with an expanded interlayer distance as monitored using X-ray powder diffractometry. UV-Vis spectrophotometry, Infrared, X-ray photoelectron, and 31P-NMR spectroscopies, thermal gravimetric analysis, and molecular modeling studies will indicate any chemical modifications of the bioactive species upon intercalation or interactions with the phosphate groups of the ZrP material. Results of in-vitro drug release studies will be a prerequisite for future work such as cytotoxicity studies with breast-cancer cell lines for anticancer agents that might indicate that the use of these materials for cancer treatment could prove to represent a new strategy for nanotherapeutics. Among the instruments available to the REU students are a Bruker-Tensor 27 FT-IR & OPUS Data Collection Program for the analysis, a UV-Vis spectrophotometer, a BASi potentiostat, and a Rigaku Smart Lab X-ray diffractometer.
To contact Dr. Colón you can write to the bellow address
E-mail: jorge.colon10@upr.edu
E-mail: jorge.colon10@upr.edu