Alan Enciso

Postdoctoral Associate

Bio

• Polymerizations via ATRP
• Synthesis of Smart Hybrid Proteins (modification of enzymes) via ATRP
• Organic synthesis including multistep synthesis and peptide synthesis
• Purification via column chromatography, dialysis, and size exclusion chromatography
• Operation and interpretation of ESI-MS, SEM, STEM, GPC, HPLC, SEC, IR, UV-vis, and NMR (1H, 13C)
• Fluent in Spanish and English with a basic level of German and Italian.
• Works perfectly within a team and enjoys clarifying doubts of others

Education

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA _ 9/2016 – Present
Postdoctoral Research

Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX _ 1/2011 – 5/2016
Ph.D. in Chemistry

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA _ 2/2016 - 5/2016
Visiting Student

Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Puebla, Mexico _ 8/2005 – 1/2010
B.S. Chemistry
Cum laude

Texas A&M University, College Station, TX _ 5/2007 – 8/2007
Education abroad

Research

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA _ 10/2016- Present
Advisor: Krzysztof Matyjaszewski
ATRP polymerization

• Design of polymerizations assisted by enzymes
• Enhancement of enzymatic properties using different polymers
• Modification of proteins and enzymes using ATRP
• Measurement of enzymatic activity

Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX _ 1/2011 – 5/2016
Advisor: Eric Simanek

• Design and synthesis of triazine dendrimers for drug delivery, antimicrobials, and material science
• Development of methods using microwaves to accelerate key reactions
• Synthesis of small molecules for imaging
• Synthesis of peptides using solid phase and peptide synthesizer
• Synthesis and characterization of homogeneous metallic nanoparticles

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA _ 2/2016 – 5/2016
Advisor: Jeremiah Johnson

• Synthesis of Iterative exponential growth of stereo- and sequence-controlled polymers

Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Puebla, Mexico _ 8/2005 – 1/2010
Advisor: Marco A. Quiroz Alfaro

• Operation of Scanning Electron Microscope (TESCAN)
• Synthesis and characterization of titanium dioxide nanotubes
• Synthesis and characterization of Ru-Pt, Pt, and Ru nanoparticles
• C60 crystallization by electrochemical methods

Research Experience for Undergraduates, College Station, TX _ 5/ 2007 – 8/2007
Advisor: Eric Simanek

• Synthesized multiple dendrimers based in melamine to produce cancer-fighting drugs

Introduction to Computational Chemistry Workshop _ 5/2006

• Taught by Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Prize winner

Publications

Intrinsic Fluorescence of Triazine Dendrimers Provides a New Approach to Study Dendrimer Structure and Conformational Dynamics. Sangram, R.; Enciso, A. E.; Pavan, G. M.; Lee, C.; Yepremyon, A.; Tomalia, D. A.; Simanek, E. E.; Gryczynski, Z. Phys. Chem. C. 2017, 121, 6946.

Facile Synthesis of Stable, Water Soluble, Dendron-coated Gold
Nanoparticles. Enciso, A. E.; Gonzalez, R.; Coffer, J.; Simanek, E. E.; Pavan, G. M.; Mohamed, A. A. Nanoscale. 2017, 9, 3128.

Thermoregulated Coacervation, Metal-encapsulation and Nanoparticle Synthesis in Novel Triazine Dendrimers. Ramirez-Crescencio; Enciso, A. E., F.; Hasan, M.; da Costa, V.C.P.; Annunziata, O.; Redon, R.; Coffer, J. L.; Simanek, E. E. Molecules. 2016, 21, 599.

Nanoparticle Effects on Human Platelets in Vitro: A Comparison between PAMAM and Triazine Dendrimers. Enciso, A. E.; Neun, B.; Rodriguez, J.; Ranjan, A. P.; Dobrovolskaia, M.; Simanek, E. E. Molecules. 2016, 21, 428.

Accelerated Synthesis of Large Generation Triazine Dendrimers Using Microwave Assisted Reactions: A 24 Hours Challenge. Enciso, A. E.; Ramirez-Crescencio, F.; Redon, R.; Simanek, E. E. Polym.Chem., 2015, 6, 5219.

Cationic Triazine Dendrimers: Synthesis, Characterization and Biological Applications. Chapter 10. Simanek, E. E.; Enciso, A. E. in Cationic Polymers in Regenerative Medicine: Methods and Applications, Eds: Samal, S. K.; Dubruel, P. RSC Polymer Chemistry, Cambridge; 2014.

Influence of linker groups in the solubility of triazine dendrimers. Enciso, A. E.; Garzoni, M.; Pavan, G. M.; Simanek, E. E. New J. Chem., 2015, 39, 1247.

Rapid, Semi-Automated Convergent Synthesis of Low Generation Triazine Dendrimers using Microwave Assisted Reactions. Enciso, A. E.; Abid, Z. M.; Simanek E. E.; Polym.Chem., 2014, 5, 4635.

Dendrimers Terminated with Dichlorotriazine Groups Provide a Route to Compositional Diversity. Patra, S.; Kozura, B.; Huang, A. Y.-T.; Enciso, A. E.; Sun, Xiankai.; Hsieh, J.-T.; Kao, C.-L.; Chen, H.-T.; Simanek, E. E. Org. Lett., 2013, 15, 3808-3811.

Computational design principles for the discovery of bioactive dendrimers: [s]-triazines and other examples. Simanek, E. E.; Enciso, A. E.; Pavan, G. M. Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2013, 8, 105-1069.

Nanorevolution, Martinez-Huitle C. A. and Enciso-Barros A. E. Internet Electronic Journal Nanociencia et Moletrónica. May 2008, Vol. 6, N°1, pp. 1221-1230.

Teaching Experience

Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX _ 1/2011 – 12/2012

• Organic Chemistry. Teaching Assistant.

Supervise laboratory students
Grade lab reports and tests
Proctor final exams

• General Chemistry. Teaching Assistant

Supervise laboratory students
Grade lab reports
Proctor final exams

• Mentor of undergraduates in dendrimer synthesis (9 students)

Certificate in Pedagogy (TCU) _ 8/2014

Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Puebla, Mexico _ 12/2009 – 12/2010

Physical Chemistry. Research Assistant

• FT-IR, HPLC, GC-MS, UV-vis, Scanning Electronic Microscope, Scanning Transmission Electronic Microscope

Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University, Easton, PA _ 7/2010
Chemistry in Society. Teaching Assistant

• Design and teach class to gifted children
• Evaluate development

Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University, Easton, PA _ 7/2009
Chemistry in Society. Teaching Assistant

• Design and teach class to gifted children
• Evaluate development

Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University, Puebla, Mexico 7/2008
Math of the Money. Teaching Assistant

• Design and teach class to gifted children
• Evaluate development

Awards and Affiliations

Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) Postdoctoral Award (2016-2017)

Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) Renewal of Postdoctoral Award (2017-2018)

American Chemical Society

Full scholarship to Universidad de las Américas, Puebla

Honors Society Arx

Valedictorian of high school class

Nominated as young talent for National Prize of Youth by the chemistry department in UDLAP

First place in State of Puebla Biology Olympiad

Fourth place in National (Mexico) Biology Olympiad

First place in State of Puebla Logic Olympiad

Second place in State of Puebla Chemistry Olympiad