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You are in: Molecules for Health
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18 March 2010
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Molecules for Health
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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new area of medicine that makes use of the ability of certain molecules to absorb light and use this energy to bring about a therapeutic effect. PDT was originally introduced as an alternative to radiation and chemotherapy of cancer, the major advantage being that the molecules used have little or no toxicity in the absence of activating light, the light itself is also harmless as it is simply high intensity red light and has no heat associated with it. The combination of these two factors allows toxicity to be limited to the site of the tumour with minimal damage to normal tissue. Therapeutic applications of PDT are now being extended to include conditions such as Age Related Macular Degeneration, a major cause of blindness in the western world, and antibacterial treatment of infected wounds and ulcers. Our group at University of Hull are involved in designing and synthesising a new generation of PDT agents which have much higher affinities for the tissue to be treated, thus allowing the use of lower drug doses and resulting in an improved therapeutic effect. |
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| Key facts | About me | About my group |
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Our research is part of the University Clinical Biosciences Research Institute, and benefits from strong
links with the neighbouring Department of Biological Sciences and
the Hull-York Medical School.
Key Groups
Analytical Science
The Analytical Science Group at the University of Hull has established an international reputation for its unique approach to investigating chemistry through the application of novel chemical measurement systems. The group is one of the premier analytical groups in the UK and is well resourced with a wide range of state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities. Its core research is concentrated in key priority areas, including chemometrics, miniaturisation, environmental/clinical systems and separation science.
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Biological Chemistry
We are concerned with addressing health related problems at the chemistry-life sciences interface through understanding the molecular basis of disease.
Through the Clinical Biosciences Research Institute, we have close connections with colleagues in other departments at Hull as
well as at various universities throughout the UK and abroad. We develop novel materials with potential medical applications such as in photodynamic therapy, anti-HIV and anti-mycobacterial treatment.
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Lipids Research Centre
Lipids are natural oils and fats which moderate many disease processes. Our team of chemists, molecular biologists, geneticists, biochemists and enzymologists have developed an
international reputation for research in microbial and plant lipid research and benefit from first class facilities in fermentation technology and plant growth, as well as strong capabilities
in genetics and molecular biology including DNA sequencing and PCR technology.
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