12/4 Avviso di Conferenza: Prof. Elisa Tomat - "Engineering redox chemistry: From non-innocent ligands to intracellular metal chelators" C11, Sala del Consiglio (I piano)
AVVISO DI CONFERENZA
Prof. Elisa TOMAT
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arizona (USA)
Engineering redox chemistry: From non-innocent
ligands to intracellular metal chelators
Current projects in the Tomat laboratory pursue (i) the development of therapeutic strategies targeting the multifaceted roles of transition metal ions in human disease, and (ii) the engineering of redox reactivity patterns inspired by biologically occurring ligands. Our approaches on the molecular design of iron prochelators will be
discussed. Our redox-activated systems, which intercept iron cations in the intracellular milieu, seek to exploit an emerging vulnerability of cancer cells, namely their altered iron metabolism and increased demand for this essential metal ion. In addition, our recent findings on the redox chemistry of complexes featuring naturally
occurring oligopyrrolic ligands will be illustrated. Tripyrrolic and dipyrrolic compounds deriving from bacterial biosynthesis or mammalian metabolism are examined as redox-active ligands.