Multifunctional Polymer Microbubbles for Advanced Sentinel Lymph Node Imaging and Mapping.

摘要

The goal of this Postdoctoral Award was twofold. First, the proposed research sought to design microbubble ultrasound contrast agents with enhanced dye loading capacity for imaging and surgical labeling of sentinel lymph nodes. Second, the training plan sought to improve the PI's scientific development through a combination of junior scientist mentoring, grantwriting, and external presentations. Owing to poor yields and dispersities through the original proposed fabrication plan, a new synthesis plan led to some progress in creating uniform dye loading, although problems with yield remain. The PI also made progress in identifying polymer and chemical structures that break easily under ultrasound. On the training side, the PI has been quite successful in obtaining additional external funding through NIH, presenting at numerous conferences, and mentoring several students. In addition, he applied for multiple faculty positions, obtained three offers, and will begin a tenuretrack faculty position at the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in Summer 2012.