Spectroscopic investigation on multitarget probes of biomolecules

The student will work mainly with porphyrinoids as multivalent molecules, to study several features of biologic systems. Interaction between porphyrinoids and biomolecules is a very studied topic owing to the clinical use of porphyrins as photosensitizer in the cure of cancer by photodynamic therapy. However it is possible to exploit the enormous potentiality of porphyrins to investigate the conformational change of biomolecules, even to detect the presence of specific target. By UV/vis, Fluorescence, Resonance Light Scattering and Circular Dichroism spectroscopies a complete characterization of the interactions between porphyrins and biomolecules will be performed. In particular Circular Dichroism results very diagnostic for this aim, indeed porphyrins used in this work are not chiral, however after the interaction with chiral biomolecules an induced CD bands can be detected in the porphyrin absorption region (~ 400 nm) which is free from spectroscopic interferences. The shape and sign of this signal are specific markers of the binding mode occurred. Concerning the biomolecules, we decide to study both DNA and RNA.

Scientific Responsible: Dr. Alessandro D'Urso (e-mail: adurso@unict.it)