Trevor Del Castillo

Trevor J. Del Castillo received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Florida in 2008, where he conducted research under the guidance of Adam Veige in the areas of organometallic/inorganic synthesis, reactivity, and catalysis. Trevor went on to pursue his Ph.D. research at Caltech with Jonas Peters, studying the development and mechanisms of molecular inorganic catalysts for the conversion of dinitrogen to ammonia, including in an electrochemical context utilizing a PCET mediator. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2018, Trevor became a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University where he worked with Robert Waymouth on a large multidisciplinary research effort, using organocatalytic ring-opening polymerization to develop functional polymers for use as mRNA delivery vectors. In 2023, Trevor joined the faculty of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science.

Ph.D.; California Institute of Technology; Chemistry; 2018

B.S.; University of Florida; Chemistry; 2012

CHEM 491 - RESEARCH & INDEP STUDY I

CHEM 725 - INDEPENDENT STUDY I

CHEM 243 - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I

CHEM 791 - GRADUATE SEMINAR

Organic Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Organometallics, Drug/Gene Delivery

Current Research Areas:

Investigation of sequence-defined oligomers for biological/pharmaceutical applications
It has long been recognized that control of monomer sequence can give rise to a wide variety of advanced functions in polymeric materials. The archetypical example of this is found in biology, where the myriad functions of proteins are (with some caveats) derived from the precise sequence control of the assembly of relatively few amino acid building blocks. Considerable recent effort in polymer chemistry has been applied to develop methods to access synthetic, sequence-defined or sequence-controlled polymers. Our group utilizes these cutting-edge strategies, novel chemistry, and automation to synthesize sequence-defined oligomers of interest and study their fundamental properties. Particularly we are interested in their phase separation/self-assembly/coacervation behavior and their interface with biological systems, with an eye toward pharmaceutical applications including drug and gene delivery.

Chemically recyclable plastic
There is a pressing need to rethink and redesign our entire global plastic economy. While this grand challenge to humanity requires many types of innovation and intervention, one opportunity is the development of new plastic materials which offer sufficient performance/cost properties to compete in the market while also being renewably sourced, truly recyclable, and environmentally benign. A promising strategy to better recycling outcomes is developing plastics which can be chemically converted back into starting material monomers at the end of their useful lifetime. In this way waste plastics can be converted back into pristine new polymers with no loss of material properties. Our group is exploring ring-opening polymerization/depolymerization of novel monomers to access new chemically recyclable polymers.

Blake, Timothy R., & Haabeth, Ole A., & Sallets, Adrienne, & McClellan, Rebecca L., & Del Castillo, Trevor James, & Vilches-Moure, Jose G., & Ho, Wilson C., & Wender, Paul A., & Levy, Ronald, & Waymouth, Robert M. (2023). Lysine-Derived Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters: Targeted Delivery of mRNA and siRNA to the Lungs. Bioconjugate Chemistry,

Ramsay-Burrough, Summer, & Marron, Daniel P., & Armstrong, Keith C., & Del Castillo, Trevor James, & Zare, Richard N., & Waymouth, Robert M. (2023). Mechanism-Guided Design of Robust Palladium Catalysts for Selective Aerobic Oxidation of Polyols. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 145(4), 2282-2293.

Testa, Stefano, & Haabeth, Ole A., & Blake, Timothy R., & Del Castillo, Trevor James, & Czerwinski, Debra K., & Rajapaksa, Ranjani, & Wender, Paul A., & Waymouth, Robert M., & Levy, Ronald (2022). Fingolimod-Conjugated Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters Efficiently and Specifically Deliver mRNA to Lymphocytes In Vivo and In Vitro. Biomacromolecules, 23(7), 2976-2988.

Chalkley, M J, & Del Castillo, Trevor James, & Matson, B D, & Peters, J C (2018). Fe-Mediated Nitrogen Fixation with a Metallocene Mediator: Exploring p K(a) Effects and Demonstrating Electrocatalysis.. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 140(19), 6122-6129.

Chalkley, M J, & Del Castillo, Trevor James, & Matson, B D, & Roddy, J P, & Peters, J C (2017). Catalytic N(2)-to-NH(3) Conversion by Fe at Lower Driving Force: A Proposed Role for Metallocene-Mediated PCET.. ACS central science, 3(3), 217-223.