Eva Harth

Title and Contact Information

Associate Professor of Chemistry
Office: 7619 SC
Phone: (615) 343-3405
Email • Website

Education

Ph.D., University of Mainz/MPI for Polymer Research, 1998

Specialties

VINSE
VICB
Polymer Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Nanomaterials Chemistry
Materials Chemistry
Chemical Biology

In the News

VICC-Nanosponge May Aid Delivery of Anticancer Drugs
Arts and Science Magazine-They May Be Small, But They Deliver
Arts and Science Magazine-Strengthened by Institutional Support

Harth

Research

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.

Design and Synthesis of 3-D Multifunctional well-defined Nanoscale Objects.

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

Stevens, D. M., Tempelaar, S., Dove, A., Harth, E. Nanosponge formation from organocatalytically synthesized poly(carbonate) copolymers. ACS Macro Letters. 2012, 1 (7): 915-918.

Dobish, J. N., Hamilton, S. K., Harth, E. Synthesis of low-temperature benzocyclobutene cross-linker and utilization. Polymer Chemistry. 2012, (3): 857-860.

Adkins, C. T., Dobish, J. N., Brown, C. S., Mayrsohn, B., Hamilton, S. K., Udoji, F., Radford, K., Yankeelov, T., Gore, J. C., Harth, E. High relaxivity MRI imaging reagents from bimodal star polymers. Polymer Chemistry. 2012, (3): 390-398.

Hamilton, S. K., Sims, A. L., Donavan, J., Harth, E. Non-viral siRNA delivery vectors: dendritic molecular transporter and molecular transporter nanovectors for target gene silencing. Polymer Chemistry. 2011, 2 (2): 441-446.

Novitskiy, S. V., Csiki, I., Huang, Y., Johnson, D. H., Harth, E. M., Carbone, D. P., Dikov, M. M. Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Treatment in Combination with Chemotherapy Delays Hematopoietic Recovery Due to Decreased Proliferation of Bone Marrow Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells. Journal of Thoracic Oncology. 2010, 5 (9): 1410-1415.

Van der Ende, A. E., Harrell, J., Sathiyakumar, V., Meschievitz, M., Katz, J., Adcock, K., Harth, E. "Click" Reactions: Novel Chemistries for Forming Well-defined Polyester Nanoparticles. Macromolecules. 2010, 43 (13): 5665-5671.

Passarella RJ, Spratt DE, Van der Ende AE, Phillips JG, Wu HM, Sathiyakumar V, Zhou L, Hallahan DE, Harth E, Diaz R. Targeted Nanoparticles That Deliver a Sustained, Specific Release of Paclitaxel to Irradiated Tumors. Cancer Research. 2010, 70 (11): 4550-4559.

Van der Ende A, Sathiyakumar V, Diaz R, Hallahan DE, Harth E. Linear release nanoparticle devices for advanced targeted cancer therapies with increased efficacy. Polymer Chemistry. 2010, 1 (1): 93-96.

Adkins CT, Muchalski H, Harth E. Nanoparticles with Individual Site-Isolated Semiconducting Polymers from Intramolecular Chain Collapse Processes. Macromolecules. 2009, 42 (15): 5786-5792.

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 BE, 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 CT, 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.