Partners

8a. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Professor of Environmental Health and Pharmacology Valerian Kagan is Vice-Chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, he is Foreign Adjunct Professor at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. He has pioneered the field of oxidative lipidomics, a new frontier in research on biomarkers of cell and tissue signaling and damage.

Valerian Kagan and his team will participate in assessments of effects of nanoparticles on cells in vitro using a battery of contemporary and unique techniques and protocols for oxidative lipidomics developed in his laboratory.
He will also contribute to evaluations of biomarkers of oxidative stress and damage to lipids after in vivo exposure to nanoparticles (WP3 and WP5).

 

Group members:

  • Valerian Kagan, PhD. (Professor)
  • V.A. Tyurin
  • Y.Y. Tyurina

 

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Selected publications:

  1. Tyurin VA, Tyurina YY, Feng W, Mnuskin A, Jiang J, Tang M, Zhang X, Zhao Q, Kochanek PM, Clark RS, Bayır H, Kagan VE.
    Mass-spectrometric characterization of phospholipids and their primary peroxidation products in rat cortical neurons during staurosporine-induced apoptosis.
    J Neurochem. 2008 Nov 6. Read » (opens in new window)
  2. Bayir H, Tyurin VA, Tyurina YY, Viner R, Ritov V, Amoscato AA, Zhao Q, Zhang XJ, Janesko-Feldman KL, Alexander H, Basova LV, Clark RS, Kochanek PM, Kagan VE.
    Selective early cardiolipin peroxidation after traumatic brain injury: an oxidative lipidomics analysis.
    Ann Neurol (2007) Aug;62(2):154-69. Read » (opens in new window)
  3. Kagan VE, Tyurin VA, Jiang J, Tyurina YY, Ritov VB, Amoscato AA, Osipov AN, Belikova NA, Kapralov AA, Kini V, Vlasova II, Zhao Q, Zou M, Di P, Svistunenko DA, Kurnikov IV, Borisenko GG
    Cytochrome c acts as a cardiolipin oxygenase required for release of proapoptotic factors.
    Nat Chem Biol 2005;1:223-232. Read » (opens in new window)

8b. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

The research of Alexander Star at the University of Pittsburgh focuses on the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials for applications in energy and life sciences.

For this project, the Star research group will act as US collaborative partners on synthesis and characterization of ENs, specifically single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) within WP2. Moreover, modification of carbon nanotubes by doping them with nitrogen will be studied in order to increase carbon nanotube biodegradation characteristics.

Group members:

  • Alexander Star (assistant professor)
  • P. Kichambare (post doc)
  • P. Gou (PhD student)

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Selected publications:

  1. Allen BL, Kichambare PD, Gou P, Vlasova II, Kapralov AA, Konduru N, Kagan VE, Star A.
    Biodegradation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes through Enzymatic Catalysis.
    Nano Lett. 2008 Nov;8(11):3899-903. Read » (opens in new window) 
  2. Kauffman DR, Star A.
    Chemically induced potential barriers at the carbon nanotube–metal nanoparticle interface.
    Nano Letters 2007;7:1863-1868. Read » (opens in new window)
  3. Star A, Tu E, Niemann J, Gabriel JCP, Joiner CS, Valcke C.
    Label-free detection of DNA hybridization using carbon nanotube network field-effect transistors.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006;103:921-926. Read » (opens in new window)