Submission Date

7-21-2017

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Chemistry

Second Department

Biology

Faculty Mentor

Mark Ellison

Second Faculty Mentor

Anthony Lobo

Student Contributor

Brandon Greyson

Second Student Contributor

Ria Rathi

Comments

Presented during the 19th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 21, 2017 at Ursinus College.

Supported by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant.

Project Description

Carbon nanomaterial has become of great interest in the biomedical field with graphene emerging as a new form of drug delivery. Graphene is both water soluble and biocompatible, enabling it to work with living tissue. However, the graphene must first be modified to synthesize nanoscale graphene oxide(NGO) by biocompatible polyethylene glycol(PEG) to produce NGO-PEG, a stable, water-soluble recipient to the antibiotic. It has been determined that NGO-PEG is effective in cancer drug delivery, indicating plausible success in biological applications. The objective of this research is to use graphene oxide to deliver the antibiotic tetracycline into antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli colonies to prevent proliferation. The ability of the NGO-PEG TET to prevent proliferation of the resistant strain bacteria is tested by applying a series of incubations and using spectrophotometry. We can confirm the success of the synthesis of NGO-PEG with tetracycline by absorbances and have seen inhibition in both the non-resistant and resistant strain.

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