Dr. Jennifer A. Swift
Georgetown UniversityWednesday, November 28th 2012
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Science Complex Chemistry 121
“A Material Chemist’s View of Crystal Deposition Disease”
Uric acid is a natural product in purine metabolism which can precipitate under physiologic conditions in a variety of solid state forms leading to symptoms associated with kidney stones and gout. The evolution of these physiologic deposits is a multi-step process. This talk will describe a variety of studies on three compounds – anhydrous uric acid (UA), uric acid dihydrate (UAD) and monosodium urate (MSU) – which are aimed at elucidated key factors important to the nucleation, growth and aggregation of these materials. Analytical methods including optical microscopy, X-ray crystallography, and in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) and their application to this problem will be described.