The Nanoscale Materials and Device Group

Bio

Dr. Olga Mass joined the Micron School of Materials Science & Engineering at Boise State University in September 2019 as a Research Scholar working in the Nanoscale Materials and Device group with Profs. Bill Knowlton and Bernard Yurke. Her previous work included an appointment as an organic chemistry lecturer at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Boise State (2013-2017) and as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the research group of Prof. Lisa Warner in the Biomolecular Research Center, Boise State (2017-2019). Olga has extensive expertise in design, multistep synthesis and characterization of small organic molecules, macromolecules and dyes.

Education

Olga earned a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, 2012 under the direction of Prof. Jonathan Lindsey at North Carolina State University. There she developed synthetic routes to various mimics of chlorophylls to study a relationship between pigment’s structure and photo-physical properties resulting in her dissertation “Synthetic Methodology to Address What Makes Chlorophylls Green”. During her postdoctoral appointment, Olga was working on the recombinant expression and structural characterization of such proteins as LARP6 and Oncostatin M.

• Mass, O.A.; Wilson, C.K.; Barcenas,G.; Li, L.; Terpetschnig, E.A.; Obukhova, O.M.; Kolosova, O.S; Tatarets, A.L.; Yurke,B.;  Knowlton, W.B.; Pensack, R.D.; Lee, J. The Influence of Hydrophobicity on Excitonic Coupling in DNA-Templated Indolenine Squaraine Dye Aggregates. J. Phys. Chem. C 2022, 126, 7, 3475–3488
• Roy, S.K.; Mass, O.A.; Kellis, D.L.; Wilson, C.K.; Hall, J.A.; Yurke, B.; Knowlton, W.B. Exciton delocalization and scaffold stability in bridged nucleotide-substituted, DNA duplex-templated cyanine aggregates. J. Phys. Chem. B 2021, 125, 50, 13670–13684
• Huff, J.S.; Turner, D.B.; Mass, O.A.; Patten, L.K.; Wilson, C.K.; Roy, S.; Barclay, M.S. Yurke, B.; Knowlton, W.B.; Davis, P.H.; Pensack, R.D. Excited-State Lifetimes of DNA-Templated Cyanine Dimer, Trimer, and Tetramer Aggregates: The Role of Exciton Delocalization, Dye Separation, and DNA Heterogeneity. J. Phys. Chem. B 2021,125, 10240-10259.
• Mass, O.A, Tuccinardi J; Woodbury L; Wolf C; Grantham B; Pu X; King M.D; Warner D.L; Jorcyk C.L; Warner L.R. Bioactive Recombinant Human Oncostatin M for NMR-based Screening in Drug Discovery. Scientific Reports, in revision (2021) 
• Barcenas, G; A. Biaggne; O.A. Mass; C.K. Wilson; R.D. Pensack; J. Lee; W.B. Knowlton; B. Yurke; L. Li. First-principles study of substituent effects on a custom squaraine dye.ARC Advances, submitted (2021)
• Barclay, M.S; S.K. Roy; J.S. Huff; O.A. Mass; D.B. Turner; C.K. Wilson; D.L. Kellis; E. Terpetschnig; J. Lee; P.H. Davis; B. Yurke, WB Knowlton, and RD Pensack. Rotaxane rings promote oblique packing and extended excited-state lifetimes in DNA-templated squaraine dye aggregates. Commun Chem 2021, 4, 19. (2021).
• Mass, O.A.; Wilson, C.K.; Roy, S.K.; Barclay, M.S.; Patten, L.K.; Terpetschnig, E.; Lee, J.; Pensack, R.D.; Yurke, B.; Knowlton, W.B. Exciton Delocalization in Indolenine Squaraine Aggregates Templated by DNA Holliday Junction Scaffolds, J. Phys. Chem. B 2020. 124, 43, 9636-9647 
• Lishchuk, A.; Kodali, G.; Mancini, J.A.; Broadbent, M.; Darroch, B.; Mass, O.A.; Nabok, A.; Dutton, P.L.; Hunter, C.N.; Torma, P.; Leggett, G.J. A Synthetic Biological Quantum Optical System. Nanoscale 2018, 10, 13064-13073.
• Warner, L.R.; Mass, O.; Lenn, N.D.; Grantham B.R.; Oxford, J.T. Growing and Handling of Bacterial Cultures Within a Shared Core Facility for Integrated Structural Biology Program. InTechOpen Book, 2018.
• Zhang, S.; Reddy, M.N.; Mass, O.; Kim, H.-J.; Hu, G.; Lindsey, J.S. Synthesis of Tailored Hydrodipyrrins and Their Examination in Directed Routes to Bacterichlorins and Tetradehydrocorrins. New J. Chem. 2017, 41, 11170–11189.
• Reddy, M. N.; Zhang, S.; Kim, H.-J.; Mass, O.; Masahiko, T.; Lindsey, J. S. Synthesis and Spectral Properties of meso-Arylbacteriochlorins, Including Insights into Essential Motifs of their Hydrodipyrrin Precursors. Molecules 2017, 22, 634–666.
• Kodali, G.; Mancini, J.A.; Solomon, L.A.; Episova, T.V.; Roach, N.; Hobbs, C.J.; Wagner, P.; Mass, O.; Aravindu, K.; Barnsley, J.E.; Gordon, K.C.; Officer, D.L.; Dutton, P.L.; Moser, C.C. Design and Engineering of Water-Soluble Light-Harvesting Protein Maquettes, Chemical Science, 2017, 8, 316–324.
• Tsargorodska, A.; Cartron, M. L.; Vasilev, C.; Kodali, G.; Mass, O. A.; Jeremy J. Baumberg, J. J.; Dutton, P. L.; Hunter, N. C.; Törmä, P.; Leggett, G. J. Strong Coupling of Localized Surface Plasmons to Excitons in Light-Harvesting Complexes. Nano Lett. 2016, 16, 6850–6856.
• .Liu, M.; Ptaszek, M.; Mass, O.; Minkler, D. F.; Sommer, D. R.; Bhaumik, J.; Lindsey, J. S. Regioselective beta-pyrrolic electrophilic substitution of hydrodipyrrin-dialkylboron complexes facilitates access to synthetic models for chlorophyll f. New J. Chem. 2014, 38, 1717–1730.
• Deans, R.M.; Mass, O.; Diers, James R.; Bocian, David F.; Lindsey, Jonathan S. Serendipitous synthetic entrée to tetradehydro analogues of cobalamins. New J. Chem. 2013, 37, 3964–3975.
• Aravindu, K.; Mass, O.; Vairaprakash, P.; Springer, J. W.; Yang, E.; Niedzwiedzki, D. M.; Kirmaier, C.; Bocian, D. F.; Holten, D.; Lindsey, J. S. Amphiphilic chlorins and bacteriochlorins in micellar environment. Molecular design, de novo synthesis and photophysical properties. Chem.  Sci. 2013, 4, 3459-3477.
• Springer, J. W.; Faries, K. M.; Diers, J. R.; Muthiah, C; Mass, O.; Kee, H. L.; Kirmaier, C.; Lindsey, J. S.; Bocian, D. F.; Holten D. Effects of substituents on synthetic analogs of chlorophylls. Part 3: the distinctive impact of auxochromes at the 7- versus 3-positions. Photochem. Photobiol. 2012, 88, 651–674.
• Mass, O.; Lindsey, J. S. J. A trans-AB-bacteriochlorin building block. J. Org. Chem. 2011, 76, 9478–9487.
• Mass, O.; Pandithavidana, D. R.; Ptaszek, M.; Santiago, K.; Springer, J. W.; Jiao, J. Y.; Tang, Q.; Kirmaier, C.; Bocian, D. F.; Holten, D.; Lindsey, J. S. De Novo synthesis and properties of analogues of the self-assembling chlorosomal bacteriochlorophylls. New J. Chem. 2011, 35, 2671–2690.
• Mass, O.; Taniguchi, M.; Ptaszek, M.; Springer, J. W.; Faries, K. M.; Diers, J. R.; Bocian, D. F.; Holten, D.; Lindsey, J. S. Structural characteristics that make chlorophylls green: interplay of hydrocarbon skeleton and substituents. New J. Chem. 2011, 35, 76–88.
• Lindsey, J. S.; Mass, O.; Chih-Yuan, C. Tapping the near-infrared spectral region with bacteriochlorin arrays. New J. Chem. 2011, 35, 511–516.  
• Taniguchi, M.; Mass, O.; Boyle, P. D.; Tang, Q.; Diers, J. R.; Bocian, D. F.; Holten, D.; Structural studies of sparsely substituted synthetic chlorins and phorbines establish benchmarks for changes in the ligand core and framework of chlorophyll macrocycles. J. Mol. Structure 2010, 979, 27–45.
• Mass, O.; Ptaszek, M.; Taniguchi, M.; Diers, J. R.; Kee, H. L.; Bocian, D. F.; Holten, D.; Lindsey, J. S. Synthesis and photochemical properties of 12-substituted versus 13-substituted chlorins. J. Org. Chem. 2009, 74, 5276–5289.
• Nazarova, A.; Ignatova, A.; Feofanov, A.; Karmakova, T; Pljutinskaya, A.; Mass, O.; Grin, M.; Yakubovskaya, R.; Mironov, A.; Maurizot, J.-C. 13,15-N-cycloimide derivatives of chlorin p6 with isonicotinyl substituent are photosensitizers targeted to lysosomes. Photochem. Photobiol. 2007, 6, 1184–1196.

Patent

Lindsey, J. S.; Mass, O. Routes to trans A,B-substituted bacteriochlorins. 

U.S. Patent 9,365,722 (June 14, 2016)