Contact Information:
Department of Chemistry
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77842
Phone: (979) 845-4242
Fax: (979) 845-4719
simanek@mail.chem.tamu.edu

Eric E Simanek
Professor
Director, First Year Program

Ph. D., Harvard University

Areas of Interest:

• Chemical Education
• Materials and Medicine
• Polymer (dendrimer) Chemistry

Simanek Research Group

First Year Program

NSF GK12 Program

Dendrimers are polymers named for trees that show snowflake-like perfection. In 2000, our group introduced dendrimers based on melamine. These architectures are unique in a variety of ways and subsequent reports from our group have addressed synthetic aspects of these architectures. In our opinion, these dendrimers are the first and only class of molecules that may reduce synthetic challenges to the trivial. The synthetic (and other) details to substantiate are elaborated upon at our homepage.

Current inquiries address two areas of potential application; the use of dendrimers in drug delivery and in separation science.

Drug Delivery: These dendrimers can bear biolabile disulfide-linked groups that undergo thiol-disulfide exchange with rates that depend on the composition of the dendrimer. These dendrimers can be functionalized with peptides or small molecules to provide multivalent displays of ligands. These dendrimers appear to enter cells through facilitated transport. These dendrimers are not toxic to mice up to 10mg/kg in single-dose preliminary studies. These dendrimers solubilize hydrophobic small molecule drugs. These dendrimers can be functionalized with oligonucleotides.

Separation Science: These dendrimers can be supported on nanoporous alumina, silica gels, and in smectic clays. Dendrimer-membrane composites show excellent permeance and selectivity for toluene in nitrogen streams exceeding membranes of PDMS. Organoclays remove atrazine from water with an efficiency that is dependent on the composition of the organic component and the morphology (composition) of the organoclay. Basic inquiries into these systems have led to additional new strategies for remediation.

Evaluation of Multivalent Dendrimers Based on Melamine: Kinetics of Thiol-Disulfide Exchange Depends on the Structure of the Dendrimer. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 5086-5094.

Preparation of Multivalent Dendrimers Through Thiol-disulfide Exchange. Org. Lett. 2003, 5, 1245-1247.

Triazine Dendrimers for Drug Delivery: Evaluation of Solubilization Properties, Activity in Cell Culture, and in vivo Toxicity of a Candidate Vehicle. Supramol. Chem. 2003, In Press.

Synthesis and Characterization of DNA-Dendrimer Conjugates. Bioconj. Chem. 2003, 14,488-493.

Structure Activity Relationships in Dendrimers Based on Triazines: Gelation Depends on Choice of Linking and Surface Groups. Macromolecules 2002, 35, 9015-9021.

Dendrimers. Branching Out of Polymer Chemistry. J. Chem. Ed. 2002, 79, 1222-1231.

Orthogonal, Convergent Syntheses of Dendrimers Based on Melamine with One or Two Surface Sites for Manipulation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 8914-8922.

Synthesis and Characterization of Higher Generation Dendrons Based on p-Aminobenzylamine. Evidence for Molecular Recognition of Cu(II). Tetrahedron Lett. 2001, 42, 5355-5357.

Dendrimers Based on Melamine. Divergent and Orthogonal, Convergent Syntheses of a G3 Dendrimer. Org. Lett. 2000, 843-845.