Dr. Jonathan S. Dordick
VP for Research and Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
“Biocatalytic Nanocomposites: Engineering
Form, Function, and Protection from Disease”
Friday, February 27th, 2014
10:50 am – 11:50 am
Center of Excellence, Symposium Hall (ITC)
ABSTRACT: Nature is unparalleled in its structural and functional diversity. Living organisms make fantastic materials under myriad conditions with properties we cannot emulate today using conventional approaches. In many cases, nature has provided us with a blueprint to design and assemble both natural and synthetic building blocks to create a new generation of functional, organized, and responsive materials. We have taken cues from nature to design materials with unique structural and functional properties, along with new process technologies with the ability to produce a wide range of biomimetic structures. Specifically, we have focused on the generation of nanostructures that are functionalized with and in some cases constructed from biological molecules, complete with tailored selectivities and biocatalytic activities. Both fundamental advances and applications will be discussed, the latter focused on enzyme-nanomaterial composites with a wide range of activities that endow surfaces with decontaminating properties. In particular, surfaces have been generated with tailored activity against hospital-acquired infections (e.g., MRSA), food-borne illnesses (e.g., Listeria), and bacillus spores. Such activity provides a safe and potentially broadly applicable route to eliminating toxic compounds and pathogenic microorganisms from common surfaces.
BRIEF BIO: Prof. Dordick’s research group includes chemical engineers, bioengineers, materials scientists, biologists, chemists and microbiologists all focused on gaining a quantitative understanding of biological principles and applying them to advance bioengineering, nanobiotechnology, drug discovery, and biomanufacturing. He presently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards for several biotechnology companies and venture capital firms, and has cofounded a number of companies, including EnzyMed (now part of Albany Molecular Research, Inc.), Solidus Biosciences, and The Paper Battery Company. Dr. Dordick has published over 330 papers and is an inventor/co-inventor on nearly 40 patents and patent applications.
Please contact Trisha Glezen
if interested in meeting with the speaker before or after the seminar.
