Michael J. Sailor, PhD
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California, San Diego
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, and the Royal Society of Chemistry
Seminar Information
Autophagy, meaning "self-devouring", is a natural cellular process that degrades unnecessary or dysfunctional components in order to maintain the function of the cell. Some inorganic materials, by virtue of their composition or their nanostructure, have a similar ability to deconstruct and then reassemble into new forms in response to external stresses. There is increasing emphasis on incorporating such degradation into nanoparticle designs for applications in nanomedicine. For example, targeted drug delivery requires the nanoparticle to release a drug payload in a specific region of the body, where ideally the material then dissolves into non-toxic byproducts. Although bulk silicon is too stable to exhibit significant degradation in the body, nanoscale silicon is readily degradable and quite biocompatible. This presentation will discuss the chemistry and photochemistry of luminescent porous silicon, with emphasis on the self-destruction and reconstruction processes that can be harnessed for various in vitro and in vivo imaging and drug delivery tasks.
Michael J. Sailor is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego, and he holds Affiliate Appointments in the Bioengineering, the Nanoengineering, and the Materials Science and Engineering programs at UCSD. Trained as a chemist, Sailor received his training at Harvey Mudd College (B.S.) and Northwestern University (Ph.D.). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.