Visiting Researchers at Duke Work on IRG2

Elisabeth Garanger and Desiree Weller Visit Duke to Work on IRG2 in Dr. Chilkoti's Lab.

Dr. Elisabeth Garanger, a visiting scientist from the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology (France) is currently in residence at Duke University as a guest of IRG2 of the Research Triangle MRSEC for a couple of months.  She is leading a collaboration between the groups of  Prof. S. Lecommandoux (LCPO, University of Bordeaux, France) with IRG2 team leader Prof. A. Chilkoti  on the development of hybrid nanomaterials from iron oxide nanoparticles and elastin-like recombinant copolymers for imaging and treatment of brain tumors.  While at Duke, she is learning to synthesize elastin like polymers for integration with iron oxide nanoparticles that are being synthesized at Bordeaux for this project, and  hopes to return to France at the conclusion of this working visit with enough materials to carry out the next stage of her project.

Désirée Weller is a visiting scholar from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany) where she is a Ph.D. student in the group of Prof. M. Schmidt (Institute of Physical Chemistry). Her doctoral work focuses on the synthesis and characterization of thermoresponsive polymer brushes with peptidic side chains. During her 3 month stay as a guest of IRG2 of the Research Triangle MRSEC, she is working at Duke University with the group of Prof. A. Chilkoti. At Duke she is learning to synthesize and purify elastin-like polypeptides, which she will be using for her Ph.D. research back in Germany.