Surface Modification of Orthopaedic Biomaterials: Structure-Function Relationships of Polymerizable Antibiotics

With an emphasis on engineering solutions to problems associated with musculoskeletal infection and periprosthetic joint infection, I work on synthesizing and structurally characterizing polymerizable antibiotic monomers that may be incorporated into medical polymers and/or used to construct complex coatings for medical devices.  I am interested in structure-function relationships of materials both before and after photochemical polymerization to/from living radical type substrates and orthopaedic titanium alloys.  Commonly used characterization techniques include high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) including various 2D correlation experiments, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).