Achievement

The IGERT on Biointerfaces has fostered an exciting new thrust on design, synthesis, and characterization of a family of polymers referred to as "nanolipoblockers", which have potential to trea t arterial disease called atherosclerosis. Together with Professors Bill Welsh, Prabhas Moghe, and Kathryn Uhrich, IGERT trainees Nicole Plourde used Molecular modeling and docking approaches to understand the structure-activity relationship (SAR) between NLBs and SR-A. NLB models with the most favorable binding energy were also the most effective oxLDL inhibitors in THP-1 macrophages. This work shows that structural studies aided by theoretical modeling and docking can be used to design promising NLB candidates with optimal binding properties.This work was recently published in the journal Biomacromolecules in 2009 (PMID: 19405544).