Description

The NMR Group of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (DCB) is responsible of the NMR facilities and currently hosts 4 high resolution NMR spectrometers and share 1 HRMAS NMR spectrometer with the AMSM group (Prof. Boesch & Prof. Vermathen). The group provides NMR measurements for the research groups hosted in the DCB, but also collaborates with other groups within the university and Hospital (AMSM, Endocrinology, IBMM, VetSuisse, IFIK) and, with approximately 40 000 measurements per year, provides a large spectrum of NMR methods (high resolution and HRMAS NMR).

General goals of our research are the development of novel experimental NMR methods, with applications to structural studies of biopolymers and organic compounds. One research axis of the group is the investigation of the cytotoxic effect of various ruthenium complexes in cancer cells. The mechanisms involved here are not yet fully understood and we are trying to elucidate them using various NMR measurements. Another aspect is the study of porphyrins, used sensitizers in Photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer and other non-cancerous diseases. Our goal is to characterize selected porphyrins embedded into biodegradable block-copolymer micelles utilizing NMR spectroscopy as main tool.