Postgraduate Seminar; Linda Mitchell
Thursday, 15 July 3:00pm – 4:00pm
This seminar will be delivered via Zoom – Please email chemistry.researchsupport@sydney.edu.au for zoom link and password.
Speaker: Linda Mitchell
Host: Professor Elizabeth New
Title: Fluorescent sensor arrays for monitoring heavy metals and therapeutic drugs
Abstract: Limited access to inexpensive and sensitive systems for heavy metal toxins and therapeutics is a prevailing issue in remote areas of Australia. Fluorescent sensors, in particular fluorescent sensor arrays, offer a solution to these challenges as they can sensitively detect and monitor analytes in complex mixtures on-site. In fluorescent array studies, instead of using single, highly selective sensor, specificity is achieved by having a set of cross-reactive sensors, which are tested in an array, and then subjected to statistical analysis.1 Fluorescent arrays have already demonstrated beneficial progress towards distinguishing heavy metals and different cancer cell lines.
This seminar will describe new fluorescent array systems, designed to monitor heavy metals, platinum chemotherapies and antibiotics. The first half of the seminar will discuss strategies to effectively detect metal ions,2 and the promising application of a new sensor array to monitor platinum blood concentrations within a cohort of 27 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment.3,4 The second half will focus on the development of a new sensor array system using fluorescent polymers. We have conducted preliminary investigations on the response of these types of sensors to different analytes such as carbohydrates and antibiotics, demonstrating significant progress towards a novel polymer-based sensor array for drug detection in the bloodstream.
(1) Mitchell, L.; New, E. J.; Mahon, C. S. Macromolecular Optical Sensor Arrays. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2021.
(2) Smith, D. G.; Mitchell, L.; New, E. J. Pattern Recognition of Toxic Metal Ions Using a Single-Probe Thiocoumarin Array. Analyst 2019, 144 (1), 230–236.
(3) Mitchell, L.; Shen, C.; Timmins, H. C.; Park, S. B.; New, E. J. A Versatile Fluorescent Sensor Array for Platinum Anticancer Drug Detection in Biological Fluids. ACS Sensors 2021, 6 (3), 1261–1269.
(4) Mitchell, L.; Shen, C.; New, E. J. Fluorescent Sensors, Australian Patent Application 2020904179, 2020.