Biography
Lorraine Leon is an associate profesor in the UCF Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She joined UCF from a postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. She received her doctorate in chemical engineering from City University of New York and her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Florida.
Leon is an experimentalist with research interests at the intersection of biomaterials and polymer science ranging from nanomedicine to catalysis. She was named an Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry B in 2019, received an NSF CAREER award in 2021, and received a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award in 2022.
Leon is an experimentalist with research interests at the intersection of biomaterials and polymer science ranging from nanomedicine to catalysis. She was named an Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry B in 2019, received an NSF CAREER award in 2021, and received a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award in 2022.
Recent Publications
- A.B. Marciel, E.J. Chung, B.K. Brettmann, L. Leon, “Bulk and Nanoscale Polypeptide-Based Polyelectrolyte Complexes” Advances in Colloid and Interface Science 2016 DOI:10.1016/j.cis.2016.06.012
- Priftis, L. Leon, Z. Song, S.L. Perry, K.O. Margossian, A. Tropnikova, J.J. Cheng, M. Tirrell, “Self-Assembly of α-Helical Polypeptides Driven by Complex Coacervation” Angewandte Chemie 2015, 127, 11280-11284 DOI:10.1002/anie.201504861
- S.L. Perry*, L. Leon*, K. Hoffmann, M.J. Kade, D. Priftis, D. Wong, K. Black, C. Pierce, K. Margossian, J. Whitmer, J. Qin, J. de Pablo, M.V. Tirrell, “Chirality Selected Phase Transitions in Ionic Polypeptide Complexes” Nature Communications 2015, 6, 6052 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7052
- C-H Kuo*, L. Leon*; E.J. Chung, T.J. Sontag, C.A. Reardon, G.S. Getz, M.V Tirrell, Y. Fang, “Inhibition of Atherosclerosis-Promoting microRNAs via targeted polyelectrolyte complex micelles” Journal of Materials Chemistry B 2014, 2, 8142-8153 DOI: 10.1039/C4TB00977K
- Leon, W. Su, H. Matsui, R.S. Tu, “Interfacial Templating of Inorganic Nanostructures Using a Growth Directing and Reducing Peptide” Soft Matter 2011, 7, 10285-10290 DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05906H
- Leon, P. Logrippo, R.S. Tu, “Self-Assembly of Rationally Designed β-Sheets Under 2-D Confinement” Biophysical Journal 2010, 99, 2888-2896 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2010.08.061
Education
- Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, City University of New York, 2011
- B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, 2004
Specialties
- Molecular engineering and self assembly
- Biomaterials
- Polyelectrolyte complexation
- Soft materials characterization
- Nanomedicine