Dr. Mekki Bayachou, NIH Award

Dr. Mekki Bayachou, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, has received a 3-year R15 award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop new ultra-miniature sensors for measurements within cells. Dr. Bayachou's $447,128 award is funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and is titled, "Selenide-based electrocatalytic sensors for sensitive peroxynitrite detection in biological media: a bottom-up approach for functional interface design." Dr. Bayachou and his group are developing a nanostructured thin film material based on defined organic selenides chemically attached to ultra microelectrodes as sensing devices. This innovative bottom-up interface engineering design approach allows for the possibility to fine-tune the interface properties to optimize sensitivity and selectivity of the detection of this disease marker.