Lakeisha Taite

Rice-Houston AGEP
Rice University, Houston, TX

Lakeshia’s research primarily focuses on the uses of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide (NO) has several biological functions that make it a candidate therapeutic for a range of diverse disease states. Materials that release NO in a localized and controlled manner may also be an important investigative tool to study the effects of NO on cells and tissues. Lakeshia and her research team have successfully synthesized copolymers of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) that have been shown to release NO over a number of different time frames. These materials have shown efficacy in inhibiting some of the major contributors to the restenosis cascade. Dendrimers, highly branched nanoparticles, have also been designed to release NO over varying periods and offer the ability to design injectable, targeted therapeutics. They also sought to improve the performance of synthetic small diameter vascular grafts by incorporating a NO-releasing diazeniumdiolate segment into the main chain of a polyurethane. These bioactive polymers may have applications in further analysis of the effects of NO in biological systems and may prove beneficial as drug delivery systems in numerous applications, such as prevention of restenosis after balloon angioplasty, promotion of dermal healing, or as candidate materials for arterial substitutes. (Rice University, 2004)