Publications

10. Alireza Jafar Esmaeili,‡a   Pantea Montazeri,‡a   Jasmine Cristina Gomez,a   Didier J. Dumervil,a   Faezeh Safar Nezhada  and  Rachel C. Steinhardt

‡ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Photoswitchable TCB-2 for control of the 5-HT2A receptor and analysis of biased agonism. ChemComm, 2024, Accepted. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2024/cc/d4cc03892d

Therapies that target the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) are promising. However, probes are needed to better understand the role of 5-HT2AR. Here, we design and synthesize a photoswitch and photoswitchable 5-HT2AR ligand based on highly potent agonist TCB-2 and arylazopyrazole, which also boasts photoswitchable G protein vs. β-arrestin pathway bias.

9. Kim, S. T.; Doukmak, E. J.; Shanguhyia, M.; Gray, D. J. Photoactivatable Agonist-Antagonist Pair as a Tool for Precise Spatiotemporal Control of Serotonin Receptor 2C Signaling. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2023, Accepted. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschemneuro.3c00290

8. Gomez, J. C.; Vishnosky, N. S.; Kim, S. T.; Dinca, S. A.; Finkelstein, E. B.; Steinhardt, R. C. Robotic locomotion and Piezo1 activity controlled with novel liquid marble-based soft actuators. Adv. Funct. Mater., 2023, ASAP. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202214893

A novel liquid marble-based soft actuator is designed, fabricated, and optimized for applied use in soft robotics and biomedical applications, powered by expansion and contraction using the photothermal effect. These actuators are incorporated into soft robotic walkers and are also shown to successfully activate the mechanosensitive Piezo1 protein in a transfected human cell line with high effectiveness and no toxicity.

7. Kim, S. T.; Doukmak, E.J.; Gray, D. J.; Shanguhyia, M.; Steinhardt, R. C. Photoactivatable WAY-161503 and desmethylclozapine for tight regulation of serotonin receptor 2C signaling. ChemRxiv, 2022, https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/63addd6604902a1fac13cdc0

Live cell microscopy of 5HT2C activation. Photoinduced release of WAY161503 produces highly localized areas with WAY-161503 concentrations high enough to induce 5HT2C activation and subsequent intracellular calcium mobilization. Yellow circle indicates area of irradiation event. White arrows point to cells demonstrating increased calcium flux.

6. Gomez, J. C.; Vishnosky, N. S.; Kim, S. T.; Dinca, S. A.; Steinhardt, R. C. Near-IR actuator bimorphs: soft robot locomotion and Piezo protein activation. ChemRxiv, 2022, https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/637d0c500146ef07900191e3

5. Kim, S. T.; Doukmak, E. J.; Flax, R. G.; Gray, D. J.; Zirimu, V. N.; de Jong, E.; Steinhardt, R. C. Developing Photoaffinity Probes for Dopamine Receptor D2 to Determine Targets of Parkinson’s Disease Drugs. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 2022, ASAP https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschemneuro.2c00544

4. Kim, S. T.; Doukmak, E. J.; Flax, R. G.; Gray, D. J.; Zirimu, V. N.; de Jong, E.; Steinhardt, R. C. Developing Photoaffinity Probes for Dopamine Receptor D2 to Determine Targets of Parkinson’s Disease Drugs. ChemRXIV, 2022, https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/62d700f4468933298a609d46.

3. Gomez, J. C.; Vishnosky, N. S.; Graftstein, J. T.; Kim, S. T., Steinhardt, R. C. Thermally-expandable microspheres with high expansion ratios: design of core and shell for largest size change. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2022, view online.

2. Vishnosky, N. S.; Gomez, J. C.; Kim, S. T.; Doukmak, E. J.; Grafstein, J. T.; Steinhardt, R. C. Micron-scale soft actuators fabricated from multi-shell polystyrene particle-gold nanoparticle nanohybrids. Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, 2021, 306, 2100222. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mame.202170029

1. Wu. M.; Moser, B. A.; Steeves, T. M.; Figueroa, A.; Wallace, B. M.; Kim, S. T.; Esser-Kahn, A. P.; Steinhardt, R. C. Photon upconversion for the enhancement of microfluidic photochemical synthesis. RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 26172–26175.https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/ra/c9ra03468d#!divAbstract

Yao, Z.; Zhang, B. S.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Mills, J. H.; Prescher, J. A. Multicomponent bioluminescence imaging with an extended pi-luciferin. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, 14080. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.0c01064

Moser, B. A.; Escalante-Buendia, Y; Steinhardt, R. C.; Rosenberger, M. Cassaidy, B.; Naorem, N. Chon, A. C.; Nguyen, M.; Tran, N.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Increased vaccine tolerability and protection via NF-κB modulation Science Adv, 2020, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/37/eaaz8700?intcmp=trendmd-adv

Moser, B. A.; Escalante-Buendia, Y; Steinhardt, R. C.; Rosenberger, M. Cassaidy, B.; Naorem, N. Chon, A. C.; Nguyen, M.; Tran, N.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Small Molecule NF-kB Inhibitors as Immune Potentiators for Enhancement of Vaccine Adjuvants. 2019 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.511513/full

Tom, J. K.; Albin, T. J.; Manna, S.; Moser, B. A.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Applications of Immunomodulatory Immune Synergies to Adjuvant Discovery and Vaccine Development. Trends Biotechnol., 2019, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167779918302919?via%3Dihub

Kimani, F.; Kim, S. -M.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Correlating the Structure and Reactivity of a Contact Allergen, DNCB, and its Analogs to Sensitization Potential. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 2019, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968089619302421

Brubaker, K.; Garawal, A.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Esser-Kahn, A.P. Oxygen concentration by a countercurrent multiplier. Nature Comms. 2018, 9, article 736.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03052-y

Steinhardt, R. C.; Hiew, S.; Mohapatra, H.; Nguyen, D.; Oh, Z.; Truong, R.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Cooperative CO2 binding by a bifunctional guanidine and bifunctional alcohol. ACS Cent. Sci. 2017, 3, 1271-1275.https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.7b00418

Steinhardt, R. C.‡; Steeves, T. S.‡; Wallace, B. M.; Moser, B.; Fishman, D. A.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Photothermal nanoparticle initiation enables radical polymerization and yields unique, uniform microfibers with broad spectrum light.  ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 44, 39034-39039.https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.7b12230

Steinhardt, R. C.; Rathbun, C. M.; McCutcheon, D. C.; Krull, B.; Porterfield, W. B.; Furche, F.; Prescher, J. A. Brominated luciferins are versatile bioluminescent probes. ChemBioChem 2017, 18, 96–100. https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cbic.201600564

Moser, B. A.; ‡ Steinhardt, R. C.‡; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Surface coating of nanoparticles reduces background inflammatory activity while increasing particle uptake and delivery. ACS Biomater. Sci. Eng. 2016, 3, 206–213. ‡ denotes equal contribution https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00473

Moser, B. A.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Escalante-Buendia, Y.; Bolt, D. A.; Barker, K. M.; Yoo, S.; McGonnigal, B. G.; Esser-Kahn, A. P. Immune potentiator for increased safety and improved protection of vaccines by NF-kB. 2016. bioRxiv DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1101/489732

Steinhardt, R. C.; O’Neill, J. A.; McCutcheon, D. C; Rathbun, C. M.; Prescher, J. A. Design and synthesis of an alkynyl luciferin analogue for bioluminescence imaging. Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 3671–3675. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja301493d

Steinhardt, R. C.‡; McCutcheon, D. C.‡; Prescher, J. A. Visualising chemical communication among migratory cells in vivo. Book chapter: Springer Press. Manuscript in revision.

McCutcheon, D. C.; Paley, M. A.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Prescher, J. A. Expedient synthesis of  electronically-modified luciferins for bioluminescence imaging. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 7604-7607. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ja301493d

Hirschi, A.; Cecchini, M.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Schamber, M. R.; Dick, F. A.; Rubin, S. M. An overlapping kinase and phosphatase docking site regulates activity of the Retinoblastoma protein. Nature Struct. Mol. Biol. 2010, 17, 1051-1057. https://www.nature.com/articles/nsmb.1868

Halpenny, G. M.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Okialda, K. A.; Mascharak, P. K. Characterization of pHEMA-based hydrogels that exhibit light-induced bactericidal effect via release of NO. J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 2009, 20, 2353-2360. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10856-009-3795-0

Mizisin, A. P.; Steinhardt, R. C.; O’Brien, J. S.; Calcutt, N. A. TX14(A), a prosaposin-derived peptide, reverses established nerve disorders in streptozotocin-diabetic rats and prevents them in galactose-fed rats. J. Neuropath. Exp. Neurol. 2001, 60, 953-960. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11589426/

PATENTS                                                                                                                                              

Esser-Kahn, A. P.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Studnitzer, B.; Deak, P. Methods and Compositions for Targeting of Antigens and Other Polypeptides to First Responder Dendritic Cells. 2022.

Moser, B. A.; Steinhardt, R. C.; Escelante-Buendia, Y.; McGonnigal, B. Immune-potentiator for improved vaccine response by NFkB modulation. 2017.