C. Vijaya Kumar

Professor of Chemistry

C. Vijaya Kumar's research interests involve biocatalysis and biomaterials at the very small, or nano-scale. He uses inorganic nanomaterials to immobilize enzymes and conduct enzyme catalysis at elevated temperatures, reactions that normally would not be possible. Most enzymes are proteins that are highly specific and efficient catalysts. However, their application in chemistry is limited, in part, because of their instability. This can be overcome by binding enzymes to nanomaterials. In another related project, his research group is using nanomaterials to bind very tightly with RNA and DNA, a process with potential applications in chemotherapy and photochemotherapy.

Podcast

Web page: http://chemistry.uconn.edu/kumar.html ; http://jasmin.chem.uconn.edu