We are synthetic chemists.
We specialize in the synthesis of molecules with designed properties, such as the establishment of chromophores with tuned photophysical properties, metal complexes with favorable pharmacokinetics or systems exhibiting chemosensory characteristics.
Our interdisciplinary research program falls within the areas of heterocycle, porphyrinoid, and coordination chemistry. Practical needs (chemosensors for explosives or other chemical species of interest; photochemotherapeutics; optical and acoustic imaging agents) as well as fundamental research aspects are the driving forces for our research.
We also collaborate with a number of group at UConn, other US institutions, and abroad.
Past and current funding for the group is provided through grants from the UConn Research Foundation, ACS-PRF, and the NSF. We are also grateful for having received research support in the form of student fellowships from UConn, the NSF, and the chemical industry.
News
Expanding the Eggshell Colour Gamut!
Bird eggshells just became more colorful! For well over 100 years, only two pigments have been identified in avian eggshells: rusty-brown protoporphyrin (e.g., brown chicken eggs) and blue-green biliverdin (e.g., turquois eggs of robins). However, tinamou (chicken-like forest dwellers of South America) eggshells display unusually colored eggshells, suggesting the presence of other pigments.
[Read More]Eggshells and Hedgehogs
Congratulations to Randy Hamchand who defended his MS Thesis with an entirely new topic for our group: The extraction of naturally occurring porphyrins/oligopyrroles in eggshells and the quills of hedgehogs. Randy will be joining the Yale graduate program in chemistry!
[Read More]Congratulations Drs. Sharma and Li!
Congratulations to Meenakshi Sharma and Ruoshi Li who successfully defended their dissertations! Dr. Li tackled the modification of octaethylporphyrin, while Dr. Sharma studied a number of oxygen-based pyrrole-modified porphyrins!
[Read More]