Bradley Smith

Research Interests

Research in the Smith group is highly interdisciplinary, and combines the synthesis of novel organic compounds with biochemical and biophysical methods to evaluate their utility. They often employ supramolecular elements in their compound design. This rapidly growing field is less reliant on strong covalent bonds, but rather engages dozens or even hundreds of weak coordinate bonds to rapidly and firmly hold a target. Another common design element in their compounds is photophysical properties (i.e. fluorescence, photoluminescence, photothermal). These not only give the researchers useful tools to “see” the effect of the molecules in vitro, but also enable potential therapeutic or diagnostic applications in medicine.

Professor Smith is director of the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility (NDIIF).