Investigation of Metal-Organic Hybrids as Photosensitizers for Bioinorganic Applications

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My last NSERC DG period explored coordination complexes as DNA photocleaving agents, compounds that have utility as photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy (PDT). This strategy for treating cancer, whereby light activation of a photosensitizer produces cytotoxic singlet oxygen, is compromised by its reliance on oxygen, which is often limited in the most aggressive tumours.  My group used its multidisciplinary expertise to exploit novel photophysical principles in coordination chemistry to elicit oxygen-independent DNA photodamage by certain photosensitizer constructs. We were the first to show that highly reactive triplet intraligand (