Light-activatable cytostatic compounds

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Alexander Heckel
• Subject Area: Biological and Biomimetic Chemistry ; Organic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 510982619

Making cytostatic compounds selective is a big challenge. In the past 20 years, my group has worked on making DNA and RNA light-activatable in order to regulate their biological activity with exact control over space, time and dose. Latest progress in mice, neuronal tissue and human blood have made us confident that nucleoside-based cytostatic compounds could be regulated in a similar way. With this project, we want to try to transfer our knowledge now to this class of substances.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants