Dr. Lisa Kelly, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
This research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of derivatives of fluorescent 4-aminonaphthalimide dyes. These types of compounds can exhibit intramolecular charge transfer and have proven useful as probes for fluorescent imaging. Depending on the variation in the amino substituent, the conformation of the structure changes, in which their photophysical and photochemical properties change when in an excited electronic state. These photochemical properties have been shown to be useful in the crosslinking of proteins and in tissue welding experiments through a process of oxidative crosslinking, following a photoinduced single electron transfer. The specific targets of these experiments are currently unknown and gaining the understanding of where these reactions take place can allow for better targeting and the creation of better crosslinking agents. Given that these applications can be used in several settings, the characterization of these excited states are of high interest, and any changes in the structure or solvent can have yet unexplored effects.