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 (1988). He conducted postdoctoral research at Oxford University and then at Columbia University before joining the faculty at Notre Dame (1991). He is currently the Director of the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility. He serves on the editorial advisory boards of Supramolecular Chemistry and The Journal of the American Chemical Society and the science advisory committee for the funding agency Research Corporation.

Research Interests

The general area is bioorganic chemistry but the research is quite multidisciplinary and encompasses topics ranging from fundamental supramolecular chemistry to small animal imaging. A major aim is to develop novel fluorescent imaging probes that can detect tumors, dying tissue, and bacterial infection in living animals. These imaging probes will 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. The Supramolecular Chemistry program designs and evaluates host molecules, transporter molecules, catalysts, and molecular machines. 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.

Recent Papers

Quantum Dot Probes for Bacteria Distinguish Escherichia coli Mutants and Permit In Vivo Imaging. Leevy, W. M., Lambert, T. N., Johnson, J. R., Morris, J., Smith, B. D. Chem. Comm. 2008, 2331-2333.

Squaraine-Rotaxanes: Superior Substitutes for Cy-5 in Molecular Probes for Near-Infrared Fluorescence Cell Imaging. Johnson, J. R.; Fu, N.; Arunkumar, E.; Leevy, W. M.; Gammon, S. T.; Piwnica-Worms, D.; Smith, B. D. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 5528-5531.

Non-Invasive Optical Imaging of Staphylococcus aureus Bacterial Infection in Living Mice Using a Bis-Dipicolylamine-Zinc(II) Affinity Group Conjugated to a Near Infrared Fluorophore. Leevy, W. M.; Gammon, S. T.; Johnson, J. R.; Lampkins, A. J.; Jiang, H.; Marquez, M.; Piwnica-Worms, D.; Smith, B. D. Bioconj. Chem. 2008, 19, 686-692.

Fluorescent Chemosensor for Chloroalkanes. Lee, J-J.; Noll, B.; Smith, B. D. Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 1735-1738.

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