Anna Ziemele

Background: BSc. (Hons) Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, DCU

Research Project: Targeted ‘Click Chemistry’ for new probe design

The primary focus of this project is the development of ‘click chemistry’ probes to direct biologically active materials within the mitochondrial matrix. Up to this point, the delivery of probes to the mitochondria has been limited by the use of mitochondrial-targeted proteins. This approach is costly and time consuming and limited the preparation of new materials. A possible solution to this problem is the application of copper-catalysed ‘click chemistry’ and this project proposes new chemistry to explore this opportunity.

This project involves the synthesis of ruthenium(II) probes with ‘switch-on’ fluorescence functionality containing mitochondrial targeting moieties. The fluorescence properties of the ‘clicked’ products will be determined using a range of molecular, biological and biophysical assays.

Funding body: SSPC - SFI

Research Gate Profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna_Ziemele