Seminar Title: “The Bright Future of Fluorescent Dyes: Designing, Development and Applications”
Wedensday, February 7th 3:30pm – 4:30pm - PBB 131
Research:
Chat Abeywickrama holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from The University of Akron, along with a BS in Chemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Before joining UConn, he served as a Senior Researcher in the Department of Structural Biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital focusing on developing intramolecularly photostabilized fluorescent dyes for bioimaging applications.
Abeywickrama’s research focuses on the design and development of biocompatible, bright, and photostable small-molecule fluorescent dyes in the Near-Infrared (NIR) region for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. These probes will primarily serve as reliable and sensitive fluorescent biomarkers for organelle detection, tracking cellular activities in real-time and sensing specific biomolecules in intracellular environments. Additionally, he develops small molecule probes for photodynamic therapy and (Bio)chemical sensing in external environments. His research will widely utilize fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and synthetic organic chemistry. Abeywickrama and his research group will aim to fine-tune existing fluorescent dye skeletons to develop novel hybrid fluorophore systems with improved performance.
For more information, contact: Deirdre McAvoy at deirdre.mcavoy@uconn.edu