Zeev Gross, PhD, Professor

Inorganic & Bioinorganic Chemistry Lab

Development of theragnostic agents based on corroles, heme-like metal-chelating macrocycles, for imaging (via fluorescence, phosphorescence, or MRI) and treatment of cancer.

Recent focus is on corrole-based nanoparticles that are conjugated to targeting proteins, for either being used as is (chemotherapy) or becoming active only upon external stimuli (light for photodynamic- or ultrasound for sonodynamic-therapy). Research starts with property tuning of the agents and their bio-conjugates for meeting the hypothesized criteria, followed by cellular level work and proof of concept in vivo investigations. The two latter aspects are performed by collaborating with research groups from Biology and the medical school. Other projects are on diseases where oxidative stress is strongly involved (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most recently published example), since the pro- and anti-oxidant activity of corroles may be controlled by proper design.