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Francisco (Kiko)
C. Serna
Department of Biomedical Engineering
CPE 4.442A, MC C0400 (see map)
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712
(512) 471-5827 (phone)
kserna@mail.utexas.edu |
Years with Schmidt Research Group:
2001 - present
Education:
BS, Electrical Engineering, University of
Texas at Austin (2001)
BA, Plan II, University
of Texas at Austin (2001)
Honors/Awards:
GEM Fellow (2001 - present)
NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2003 -
present)
Research:
Biomimetic Synthetic Polymers –
Our lab has developed a peptide (using
phage display techniques) that binds
to the conducting polymer polypyrrole. While we know that this peptide
binds polypyrrole, we know little about the binding event.
In order to characterize the binding event, we are using Isothermal
Titration Calorimetry, which measures the heat released by a binding event.
By correlating the heat released to the amount of peptide injected, it is
possible to determine the association constant, the entropy, and the
specific heat of the binding event.
Measuring differences in these thermodynamic quantities for various
permutations of the peptide provides insight into the binding mechanism.
Deeper insight can be gained through techniques such as changing the solvent
used for the binding experiment or running the experiment at different
temperatures.
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