James Canary Professor of Chemistry B.S., University of California, Berkeley; Ph.D., UCLA; NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University Email: james.canary@nyu.edu Phone:  212-998-8422 Lab Homepage:  http://www.nyu.edu/pages/canary/index.html

Areas of Research/Interest: Organic, bioorganic, and bioinorganic chemistry; chiral materials; nanoscience; molecular imaging; supramolecular chemistry

Research Description: Dr. James W. Canary's group uses molecular modeling and organic synthesis to engineer materials with designed properties at the interface between biomedical chemistry and nanoscience. One effort in the group is the application of stereochemistry to the development of materials for molecular electronics and nanotechnology . We design and synthesize molecules containing "triggers" that induce shape changes and optical responses. Such behavior might be useful in the future development of optical display or electronic technology. A second area of research involves imaging. We design of molecules for fluorescent sensing metal ions of importance to neurobiology. Other imaging projects are underway in collaboration with scientists at the NYU School of Medicine. In collaboration with Ned Seeman's group, we develop methods for DNA- directed assembly of organic polymers. The goal is to harness the exquisite structural control of DNA nanotechnology for the synthesis of organic materials and devices.

Select Publications:

Holmes, A. E.; Das, D.; Canary, J. W. "Chelation-Enhanced Circular Dichroism of Tripodal Bisporphyrin Ligands," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 1506-1507.

Angelo, N. G.; Henchey, L. K.; Waxman, A. J.; Canary, J. W.; Arora, P. S.; Wink, D. "Synthesis and Characterization of Aldol Condensation Products from Unknown Aldehydes and Ketones - an Inquiry-Based Experiment in the Undergraduate Laboratory," J Chem Educ 2007, 84, 1816-1818.

Dai, Z.; Canary, J. W. "Tailoring Tripodal Ligands for Zinc Sensing," New J. Chem. 2007, 31, 1708-1718.

Liu, Y.; Wang, R. S.; Ding, L.; Sha, R. J.; Lukeman, P. S.; Canary, J. W.; Seeman, N. C. "Thermodynamic Analysis of Nylon Nucleic Acids," Chembiochem 2008, 9, 1641-1648.

Das, D.; Dai, Z. H.; Holmes, A.; Canary, J. W. "Exploring the Scope of Redox-Ttiggered Chiroptical Switches: Syntheses, X-Ray Structures, and Circular Dichroism of Cobalt and Nickel Complexes of N,N-Bis(Arylmethyl)Methionine Derivatives," Chirality 2008, 20, 585-591.

Liu, Y.; Kuzuya, A.; Sha, R. J.; Guillaume, J.; Wang, R. S.; Canary, J. W.; Seeman, N. C. "Coupling Across a DNA Helical Turn Yields a Hybrid DNA/Organic Catenane Doubly Tailed with Functional Termini," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 10882-1088.

Liu, Y.; Sha, R. J.; Wang, R. S.; Ding, L.; Canary, J. W.; Seeman, N. C. "2 ',2 '-Ligation Demonstrates the Thermal Dependence of DNA-Directed Positional Control," Tetrahedron 2008, 64, 8417-8422.

Canary, J. W. "Redox-Triggered Chiroptical Molecular Switches," Chem. Soc. Rev. 2009, 38, 747-756.

Berrios-Otero CA, Isaacman S, Bartelle BB, Szulc KU, Canary JW, Turnbull DH.  Novel Two Step PAMAM Dendrimers for Targeted MRI of TfR Expression, in Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. (2009).

Dai, Z. D.; Khosla, K. N.; Canary, J. W. C. "Visible Color Displacement Sensing System for Manganese(II)," Supramol Chem . 2009, 21, 296-300.