Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Ph.D., University of Mainz/MPI for Polymer Research, 1998
eva.harth@vanderbilt.edu
Harth Group

From Functional Macromolecules to Nanoparticles

The overreaching goal of our research is the development of versatile platforms of innovative vectors for cancer therapeutics, vaccine development and imaging reagents in nanomedicine. With the growing sophistication of polymerization strategies, the implementation of functionality and utilization of macromolecular architectures will be key for many of the promising applications in nanotechnology related to the biomedical field and materials science. Thereby structural and functional fidelity compatible for bioconjugation is a focus in the design of the polymer topology. 

1.) Design and Synthesis of 3-D Multifunctional well-defined Nanoscale Objects. We develop multifunctional organic nanoparticles of degradable and non-degradable nature to enable the controlled attachment of targeting units, molecular transporter, therapeutics and/or imaging reagents.

 2.) A new Generation of Molecular Transporter. Considering the low efficiency of cellular transport, we investigate dendritic molecular transporter of unique design to allow the delivery of bioactive cargos specifically to the cytosol or nucleus without unwanted intracellular probe metabolism and transport.
The systemic combination of nanovectors with preferred therapeutics, targeting moieties and vectors for cellular uptake provides the opportunity to obtain a large number of personalized therapeutic reagents.

 3.) Towards organic ‘quantum dots- Approaches to novel semiconducting   Nanoparticles. In demand of imaging probes correlated with the efficacy of drug carriers, well-defined nanoparticles are developed for in vivo imaging and device technologies. They contain fluorescent core units and are decorated with lanthanides to provide powerful  bimodal imaging reagents and will vitalize the investigation of electronic properties through site-isolation effects of electroactive entities in well-defined nanoobjects.

Selected Publications

Hamilton SK, Harth E. Molecular Dendritic Transporter Nanoparticle Vectors Provide Efficient Intracellular Delivery of Peptides. ACS NANO. 2009, 3 (2): 402-410.

van der Ende A, Croce T, Hamilton S, Sathiyakumar V, Harth E. Tailored polyester nanoparticles: post-modification with dendritic transporter and targeting units via reductive amination and thiol-ene chemistry. Soft Matter. 2009, 5 (7): 1417-1425.

Hamilton SK, Ikizler MR, Wallen C, Wright PF, Harth E. Effective delivery of IgG-antibodies into infected cells via dendritic molecular transporter conjugate IgGMT. Molecular Biosystems. 2008, 4 (12): 1209-1211.

Somarajan, S, Hasan, A, Adkins, T, Harth, E, Dickerson, H. Controlled Electrophoretic Deposition of Uniquely Nanostructured Star Polymer Films . Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 2008, 112 (1): 23-28.

Adkins, T, Harth, E. Synthesis of Star Polymer Architectures with Site-Isolated Chomophore Cores. Macromolecules. 2008, 41 (10): 3472-3480.

Van der Ende, A, Kravitz, J, Harth E. Approach to Formation of Multifunctional Polyester Particles in Controlled Nanoscopic Dimensions. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2008, 130: 8706-8713.

Huang, K, Voss, B, E, Kumar, D, Hamm, E, Harth, E,. Highly targeted intracellular delivery: Tailored dendritic molecular transporter. Bioconjugate Chemistry. 2007, 18: 403-409.

Huang, K, Croce, A, Hamilton, K, Adkins, C.T, Evans, L III, Harth, E. Effective Drug Therapies from Functional, Macromolecular Building Blocks with a Biomimetic Design. Macromolecular Symposium. 2007, 255: 20-23.

Hariri G, Croce T, Harth E, Han Z, Tantawy N, Peterson T, Baldwin R, Hallahan D. Radiation guided peptide targeting to tumor microvasculature using nanoparticle carriers. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. 2007, 69 (3): S151-S152.

Croce TA, Hamilton SK, Chen ML, Muchalski H, Harth E. Alternative o-quinodimethane cross-linking precursors for intramolecular chain collapse nanoparticles. Macromolecules. 2007, 40 (17): 6028-6031.

Huang K, Voss B, Kumar D, Hamm HE, Harth E. Dendritic molecular transporters provide control of delivery to intracellular compartments. Bioconjugate Chemistry. 2007, 18 (2): 403-409.

Harth E, Croce TA. Carving out niches for nanostructures: Implementation and interplay of building blocks, methods, and tools. Australian Journal of Chemistry. 2006, 59 (8): 525-533.

Croce TA, Funk M, Adkins CT, Harth E. Strategies and synthesis of suitable precursors for the construction of 3-D bioactive scaffolds. Abstracts of Papers of The American Chemical Society. 2005, 230: U3664-U3665 337-PMSE.

Drockenmuller E, Li LYT, Ryu DY, Harth E, Russell TP, Kim HC, Hawker CJ. Covalent stabilization of nanostructures: Robust block copolymer templates from novel thermoreactive systems. Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry. 2005, 43 (5): 1028-1037.

Chung, D, Britt, P, Xie, D, Harth, E, Mays, J. Synthesis of amino acid-based polymers via atom transfer radical polymerization in aqueous media at ambient temperature. Chemical Communications. 2005, 8: 1046.

Blomberg, S, Ostberg, S, Harth, E, Bosman, AW, Van Horn, B, Hawker, CJ,. Production of crosslinked, hollow nanoparticles by surface-initiated living free-radical polymerization. Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry. 2002, 40: 1309.

Gotz, H, Harth, E, Schiller, SM, Frank, CW, Knoll, W, Hawker, CJ,. Synthesis of lipo-glycopolymer amphiphiles by nitroxide-mediated living free-radical polymerization. Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry. 2002, 40: 3379.

Harth, E, Hecht, S, Helms, A, Malmstrom, E, Frechet, J, Hawker, J. The effect of macromolecular architecture in nanomaterials: A comparison of site isolation in phorphyrin core dendrimers and their isomeric linear analogs. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2002, 124: 3926.

Harth, E, Van Horn, B, Lee, Y, Germack, S, Gonzales, P, Miller, D, Hawker, J. A facile approach to architecturally defined nanoparticles via intramolecular chain collapse. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2002, 124: 8653.

Harth, E, Van Horn, B, Hawker, CJ. Acceleration in nitroxide mediated 'living' free radical polymerizations. Chemical Communications. 2001, 9: 823.

Harth, E, Hawker, J, Fan, W, Waymouth, M. Chain end functionalization in nitroxide-mediated free radical polymerizations. Macromolecules. 2001, 34: 3856.

Harth, E, Bosman, W, Benoit, D, Helms, B, Frechet, J, Hawker, J. A practical approach to the living polymerization of functional monomers: Application to block copolymers and 3-dimensional macromolecular architectures. Macromolecular Symposium. 2001, 174: 85.

Hawker, J, Bosman, W, Harth, E. New polymer synthesis by nitroxide mediated living radical polymerizations. Chemical Reviews. 2001, 101: 3661.

Benoit, D, Harth, E, Fox, P, Waymouth RM, Hawker CJ. Accurate structural control and block formation in the living polymerization of 1,3-dienes by nitroxide-mediated procedures. Macromolecules. 2000, 33: 363.

Rodlert, M, Harth, E, Rees, I, Hawker, CJ. End-group fidelity in nitroxide-mediated living free radical polymerizations. Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry. 2000, 38: 4749.

Specialties

• VICB
• Polymer Chemistry
• Organic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry

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