Dinuclear complexes; Trinuclear clusters; Hexanuclear cages; Catalysis; Water-soluble organometallics; Ruthenium; Anticancer properties; Arene ruthenium cages; Anti-cancer properties
Giannini F., Furrer J., Ibao A.-F., Zava O., Baquie M., Dyson P. J., Therrien B., Süss-Fink G., Stepnicka P. (2012), Highly Cytotoxic Trithiophenolato Diruthenium Complexes of the Type [(η6-p-MeC6H4Pri)2Ru2(SC6H4-p-X)3]+: Synthesis, Molecular Structure, Electrochemistry, Cytotoxicity and Glutathione Oxidation Pote, in
Journal of Biological Inorgenic Chemistry, 17, 951-960.
Schmitt F., Freudenreich J., Barry N. P. E., Juillerat-Jeanneret L., Süss-Fink G., Therrien B. (2011), Organometallic Cages as Vehicles for Intracellular Release of Photosensitizers, in
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 134, 754-757.
Ibao A.-F., Gras M., Therrien B., Süss-Fink G., Zava O., Dyson P. J. (2011), Thiolato-Bridged Dinuclear Arene Ruthenium Complexes: Synthesis, Molecular Structure, Reactivity and Anticancer Activity of the Dinuclear Complexes [(arene)2Ru2(SR)2Cl2], in
European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2012, 1531-1525.
Giannini F., Süss-Fink G., Furrer J. (2011), Efficient Oxidation of Cysteine and Glutathione Catalyzed by a Dinuclear Arene Ruthenium Trithiolato Anticancer Complex, in
Inorganic Chemistry, 50, 10552-10554.
Thai T-T, Therrien B, Süss-Fink G (2011), Arene ruthenium bis-saccharinato complexes: Synthesis, molecular structure and catalytic oxidation properties in aqueous solution, in
Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 696(21), 3285-3291.
Freudenreich J, Furrer J, Süss-Fink G, Therrien B (2011), Template-directed synthesis of hexanuclear arene ruthenium complexes with trigonal-prismatic architecture based on 2,4,6-tris(3-pyridyl)triazine ligands, in
Organometallics, 30(5), 942-951.
Gras M, Therrien B, Süss-Fink G, Zava O, Dyson PJ (2010), Thiophenolato-bridged dinuclear arene ruthenium complexes: A new family of highly cytotoxic anticancer agents, in
Dalton Transactions, 39(42), 10305-10313.
The present research project focuses on the synthesis and structural characterization of new multinuclear arene ruthenium complexes that are soluble in water and inert towards hydrolysis, with the aim of exploiting their inherent catalytic properties and their biological potential. While water-soluble organometallics in general are still very rare, arene ruthenium complexes with this particular property, the chemistry of which we have pioneered, open new perspectives for use as catalysts in aqueous solution and as potential anti-cancer drugs. This research proposal is a follow-up project of the ongoing project no 200020-121'509, which has proven to be successful and promising, although one of the three topics of the previous proposal (Bimetallic Arene Ruthenium-Tin Complexes) has come to an end. While it was possible to synthesize the target complexes and to study their structure and their chemistry, these compounds did not show the expected catalytic properties. In general, as far as the potential applications are concerned, the previous project has shown that the biological properties of water-soluble arene ruthenium complexes have become more important than the catalytic properties. Within this project, we propose to work on three main topics involving three Ph. D. students: Trinuclear Arene Ruthenium Clusters with Biologically Active Substitutents (Anne-Flore IBAO, 1 year), Arene Ruthenium Cages with Various Tritopic Connecting Units (Julien FREUDENREICH, 2 years) and Dinuclear Arene Ruthenium Complexes with Thiolato and Selenolato Bridges (N. N., 2 years).