Research & Publications

Plasmonic photochemistry

Metallic nanoparticles act as nanoscale antennas that amplify and concentrate light in their vicinity. Our research group specializes in harnessing these unique optical properties to enhance and control photochemical processes. To achieve this, we engineer innovative metallic nanoparticle hybrid systems and investigate how their structure, composition, and plasmonic behavior influence light-driven reactivity. We then apply these nanomaterials toward photochemical and antimicrobial applications.

Singlet Oxygen

Singlet oxygen is an excited state of molecular oxygen generated through photosensitization. Due to its short lifetime and highly reactive nature, singlet oxygen acts locally at the site of production, making it an effective tool for targeted antimicrobial applications against pathogens ranging from viruses to bacteria. Our group is interested in harnessing singlet oxygen to address antimicrobial resistance through the development and optimization of new photosensitizers, as well as strategies to enhance singlet oxygen generation and efficacy.

Excited-state modulation

Our research group is interested in understanding and controlling excited-state pathways through unconventional approaches to triplet-state access. Using polymer-based systems, we investigate how polymer composition, thickness, and the incorporation of plasticizers or antiplasticizers influence excited-state behavior and relaxation processes. By establishing fundamental structure–property relationships, our goal is to develop design principles that enable the rational tuning of excited-state dynamics, reducing reliance on trial-and-error approaches in photochemical material design.

publications

Chromosomal Antioxidant Genes Have Metal Ion-Specific Roles as Determinants of Bacterial Metal T

Environ. Microbiol. 2009, 11, 2491. Microbiological metal toxicity involves redox reactions between metal species and cellular molecules, and therefore, we hypothesized that antioxidant systems might be chromosomal determinants affecting the susceptibility of bacteria to metal toxicity. Here, survival was quantified in metal ion-exposed planktonic cultures of several Escherichia coli strains, each bearing a mutation in a gene important for redox homeostasis. This characterize

Does the DNA Binding Mode of a Molecule Affect its Ability to Interact With Singlet Oxygen?

Photochem. Photobiol. 2009, 85, 1110. Singlet oxygen is known to be a potent mutagenic agent and several biologically relevant molecules have been proposed to act as scavengers for this noxious species. However, numerous studies have been conducted in homogenous solution and the reactivity of singlet oxygen scavengers known to bind DNA has never been investigated in double-stranded DNA. In the following paper, we present the results obtained regarding the interaction between.

Mechanistic Studies of Fluorescent Sensors for the Detection of Reactive Oxygen Species

Org. Biomol. Chem. 2008, 6, 354. Two new sensors for the detection of reactive oxygen species have been synthesized and characterized; they contain the 4-amino-7-nitrobenzofurazan (ABF) moiety covalently tethered to a phenol. Comparison of sensors ABFhd and dABFhd (the latter containing two ortho-methyl groups) shows that introduction of steric bulk leads to an improvement of fluorescent sensor performance, thus confirming our previous predictions based on computational chemi

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