(2ha) Spectroscopic Imaging and Computational Chemistry at the Intersection of Biology and Material Science

My research interest is combining spectroscopic imaging and computational chemistry to probe the interaction of non-native materials with biological systems and degradation modes of materials. I am primarily interested in how nanoplastics, nanomaterials, pesticides, and persistent organic pollutants change biological systems, how these pollutants degrade, and how the degradation process varies their biological effect. My aim is to expand toxicological studies beyond current methodologies to include vibrational spectroscopic imaging to provide spatially resolved, label-free, biochemical information. I will primarily focus on how contaminants affect embryonic development, ovarian health, and the renal and lymphatic systems using both cell culture and animal models.

In addition to applying spectroscopic imaging to toxicology, I am interested in understanding the fundamental mechanism and energetics of pollutant and materials degradation using high accuracy ab initio computational chemistry models coupled with analytical chemical techniques. Exposure of materials such as polymers and metal organic frameworks to exotic conditions such as high temperature, high intensity lasers, plasmas, and ionizing radiation may either improve materials characteristics or induce material degradation. An understanding of the degradation properties of these materials is key to development of materials that either withstand such conditions or degrade in an intended and predictable manner. Additionally, these conditions can degrade pollutants and toxicity of these degradation products are not well studied. Chemical imaging of model biological systems will be used to study toxicological effects of degraded environmental contaminants.

Keywords:

Spectroscopic imaging, computational chemistry, toxicology, microplastics, nanoplastics, persistent organic pollutants

Fellowships:

NSF Oceanography Postdoctoral Fellowship (2022-Present)

Postdoctoral Research:

7/21-Current: Label-free infrared spectroscopic imaging for detection of cancer, kidney glomerular diseases, classification of microplastics, and the effects of nano/microplastic bioaccumulation on zebrafish development.

Mentor: Prof. Rohit Bhargava (Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

1/21-7/21: Label-free infrared spectroscopic imaging of heterogeneity of beta amyloid deposits in Alzheimer’s disease human brain tissue and small molecule computational and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies of CO₂ and H₂O derived surface impurities on lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide cathode materials.

Mentors: Prof. David Dixon (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alabama), Prof. Ayanjeet Ghosh (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alabama)

Dissertation:
Experimental and Computational Studies of Materials Decomposition

Advisors: Prof. David Dixon (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alabama), Prof. Shane Street (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alabama), Prof. Tonya Klein (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Alabama)

Teaching Interests:

My teaching idea centers on the concept that chemical engineers require a strong background in chemistry and fundamentals to be effective in either industry or academia. In alignment with this idea, I am interested in teaching fundamental classes such as material and energy balances and thermodynamics as well as classes that heavily utilize chemistry such as reactor design. I will incorporate basic programming into these classes so that students not only learn how to consider chemical engineering problems with a computational mindset, but also have useful output to carry forward into future classes. I have teaching experience in both chemical engineering and chemistry courses. During graduate school I lead lessons covering introduction to Matlab and programming of equation of state calculations for a chemical engineering thermodynamics class. I also voluntarily lead recitation sections for second semester general chemistry for 4 semesters during graduate school. In addition, I developed an undergraduate physical chemistry lab combining ab initio computational chemistry and bomb calorimetry for determination of enthalpies of formation and sublimation of D- and L-amino acids.

Representative Publications:

1. Confer, M. P., Holcombe, B. M., Foes, A. G., Holmquist, J. M., Walker, S. C., Deb, S., Ghosh, A., Label-free infrared spectroscopic imaging reveals heterogeneity of β-sheet aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2021, 12, 9662-9671.
2. Wang, J., Uner, N. B., Dubowsky, S., Confer, M. P., Bhargava, R., Sun, Y., Zhou, Y., Sankaran, R. M., Moore, J., Plasma electrochemistry for carbon-carbon bond formation via pinacol coupling, Am. Chem. Soc., 2023, 145, 10470-10474.
3. Fang, Z., Confer, M. P., Wang, Y., Wang, Q., Kunz, M. R., Dufek, E. J., Liaw, B., Klein, T. M., Dixon, D. A., Rushimi, R., Formation of surface impurities on lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt oxides in the presence of CO₂ and H₂O, Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, 143, 10261-10274.
4. Confer, M. P., Qu, T., Rupar, P. A., Dixon, D. A., Composite correlated molecular orbital theory calculations of ring strain for use in predicting polymerization reactions, ChemPhysChem, 2022, e202200133.
5. Allayarov, S. R., Confer, M. P., Demidov, S. V., Allayarova, U. Y., Mishenko, D. V., Klimanova, E. N., Dixon, D. A., Investigation of γ-irradiated polyvinylidene fluoride and its acute toxicity, Fluor. Chem., 2021, 251, 109885.