Sutton Family Research Impact Awards

The Sutton Family Research Impact Awards

In September of 2021, we initiated the Sutton Family Research Impact Award, using an endowment fund generously established by the family. Every month a paper published by a faculty member is selected for this award. The paper is selected from all the papers published in the previous three month cycle and is selected based on impact, which is judged using many factors - the quality of the journal, editors’ highlight, coverage elsewhere, selection for journal cover, etc. The paper is highlighted on our web page (see picture) and social media sites and the corresponding faculty member recieves a $500 cash prize. In order to be eligible, the faculty member must be the corresponding author on the paper and authorship should be shared by at least one other KU person (student, postdoc, or KU collaborator). The goals are to better publicize the extraordinary research being carried out in our department and incentivize productivity. We are very grateful to the Sutton Family whose generous support has made this program possible. Please frequent our website (www.chem.ku.edu) to keep updated on current winners!

The Mike Johnson Research Program

Self-cleaning microelectrodes probe electrochemical signals

The Johnson Research Group received the June 2022 Sutton Family Research Impact Award for their work on improving the electrochemical measurement of serotonin at microelectrodes (Stucky C and Johnson MA, J. Electrochem. Soc. 2022, 169, 4, 045501). Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that many neurons use to communicate with each other. Alterations in how well neurons release and take up serotonin are associated with many neurological disorders, especially anxiety and depression. Many research groups use a technique called fast-scan cyclic voltammetry at carbon-fiber microelectrodes (FSCV) to measure serotonin release and reuptake in rodents, with the goal of understanding the role that this chemical plays in these disorders. These studies often incorporate selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), also known as anti-depressants. Chase Stucky, first author on this paper, tested the potential confounding effects of SSRIs on serotonin measurement with FSCV. He found that common SSRIs significantly foul electrodes, which prevents accurate measurements of serotonin over short time periods. To mitigate these fouling effects, a newly developed waveform called the Extended Serotonin Waveform (ESW) was employed. This waveform generates a more positive charge on the microelectrode which causes the electrode surface to be continuously cleaned. Ultimately, the ESW prevented the fouling effects of all the tested SSRIs, allowing accurate serotonin detection over long time periods. This work highlights the potential for the ESW method to overcome the limitations that other electrochemical methods suffer from when measuring serotonin.

The Cindy Berrie Research Program

Sculpting surface properties at the nanometer dimension

The December 2021 Sutton Family Research Impact Award went to the Berrie group for a paper in the area of nanolithography (J. Phys. Chem. C, 2021 125, 23490-23500). The Berrie group has extensively investigated nanoscale patterning tools in order to allow fabrication of substrates with precisely tunable structures in order to assess the role of the nanoscale structure in materials properties including protein adsorption and assembly, electrical conductivity, and friction. Many of the commonly used fabrication methods require either organic resist layers that are difficult to remove or are not suitable for commonly used substrates. In order to address this, the Berrie group recently developed patterning methods which rely on simple salt resist layers, which are readily removed from the surface by simple aqueous processing without significant residue, and can be applied to a wide range of substrates. One of the critical aspects of this work was optimizing the deposition of the salt nanoparticle film in order to achieve uniform coverage and thickness required to function as an effective resist film, but also still be thin enough to be patterned using AFM-based patterning tools. This challenging task was carried out primarily by two graduate students who recently completed their

Ph.D. degrees in the Berrie group, Dr. Jennifer Doolin (right) who is currently a scientist at Honeywell and Dr. Sasanka Ulapane (left) who is currently at Boehringer Ingelheim. Both students made it back to KU for the hooding ceremony last May where we were able to celebrate their success.