Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz Professor Ph.D., University of Calgary Office: MSA 3201; Lab: MSA 3236, 3238, 3240 Phone (Office): (519) 661-2111 ext 81561
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Development of Biomaterials and Nano-Biomaterials
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Awards:
• Florence Bucke Award
• Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials (U Saskatchewan 2002-2007)
• CSC Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry (2006)
• Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award (2001)
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Current Research Programs:
Our group’s research focuses on the design of useful biomaterials and nano-biomaterials. These biomaterials are synthesized in our lab from simple building blocks, such as amino acids, nucleotides, and peptide nucleic acids, and are generally conjugated to probe molecules that enable us to monitor the properties of these materials using spectroscopic or electrochemical techniques. We have significant expertise in modifying surfaces with our biomolecules in an effort to obtain functional devices. Gold surfaces are particularly useful in this regard and can be readily patterned to create electrochemical sensor microarrays.
In our research, we have three major objectives:
- the development of biosensors, in particular biosensors for DNA mismatch detection, DNA sequencing, protein and chemical detection
- the development of nano-structured peptide materials and new peptide devices
- the discovery of new organometallic bioconjugates
Students in my group will learn a number of techniques ranging from synthetic peptide, DNA, and bioconjugate chemistry, spectroscopic characterization of chemical compounds, electrochemistry, surface analysis, to micro-fabrication of surface structures.
Selected Publications:
P. Diakowski, H.-B. Kraatz, “Detection of single-nucleotide mismatches using scanning electrochemical microscopy”, Chem. Commun. 2009, 1189-1191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b819876d
K. Kerman, H. Song, J.S. Duncan, D.W. Litchfield, H.-B. Kraatz, “Peptide Biosensors for the Electrochemical Measurement of Protein Kinase Activity”, Anal. Chem. 2008, 80, 9395-9401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac801208e
S. Chowdhury, G. Schatte, H.-B. Kraatz, “How Useful is Ferrocene as a Scaffold for the Design of β-Sheet Foldamers?”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 7056-7059. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.200801460
H.S. Mandal , H.-B. Kraatz, “Effect of the Surface Curvature on the Secondary Structure of Peptides Adsorbed on Nanoparticles”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 6356-6357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja0703372
