Faculty & Research // Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry // University of Notre Dame

Biography

Professor Smith earned a B. S. degree from the University of Melbourne, and a Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. He conducted postdoctoral research at Oxford University and then at Columbia University before joining the faculty at Notre Dame (1991). He has published more than 190 research papers and review articles and he is currently the Emil T. Hofman Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility. He is a Fellow of AAAS and the RSC. He serves on the science advisory committee for the funding agency Research Corporation.

Research Interests

SMART MOLECULES FOR TARGETING, IMAGING, AND SENSING. The specific research projects are diverse and encompass topics such as organic synthesis, membrane biophysics, photochemistry, and small animal imaging. A major aim is to develop novel fluorescent and chemiluminescent imaging probes that can detect dying cells in culture, and tumors and bacterial infection in living animals. Some of these imaging probes are commercially available. They help accelerate the pre-clinical stages of drug discovery and development, and also enable new strategies for studying the biology of human disease. The probes may eventually be employed in humans for fluorescence guided surgery. A notable discovery is a family of interlocked molecules called squaraine-rotaxanes which have many potential applications as extremely bright and stable fluorescent Near-IR dyes. An offshoot of this work is the development of novel self-illuminating nanoparticles for chemiluminescence bioimaging.

Recent Papers

In Vivo Targeting of Cell Death Using a Synthetic Fluorescent Molecular Probe. Smith, B. A.; Xiao, S.; Wolter, W.; Wheeler, J.; Suckow, M. A.; Smith, B. D. Apoptosis, 2011, 16, 722-731.

Efficient Synthesis of Squaraine Rotaxane Dendrimers. Xiao, S. et al. Organic Letters, 2010, 12, 140-143.

Optical Imaging of Mammary and Prostate Tumors Using a Near Infrared Zinc(II)-Dipicolylamine Probe for Anionic Cell Surfaces. Smith, B. A. et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, 132, 67-69.

For more publications, click the link:

Link

Some of the our fluorescent probes for cell death and bacteria are commercially available.