To register for your free place at this event please email Katie Weeks (k.weeks@imperial.ac.uk).
Several metals, including iron, cobalt, copper and zinc, are naturally present in living organisms and play essential roles in a wide range of biological processes. In addition, some metal complexes have shown to be very successful therapeutic and diagnostic agents. Examples of these are platinum-based anticancer drugs, used in chemotherapy since the 1970s, and gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents for medical imaging.
For several years Ramon Vilar and his team have been studying the chemistry of metal complexes in living organisms with the aim of developing new metal-based drugs as well as gaining a better molecular understanding of biological processes. They have a particular interest in studying how novel metal complexes interact with selected enzymes and DNA.
Biography
Ramon Vilar is Professor of Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry. He was born and brought up in Mexico City before moving to the UK in 1993 to carry out a PhD on palladium cluster chemistry at Imperial. He remained at Imperial first as a postdoctoral associate and later as a lecturer, focussing his research in supramolecular and coordination chemistry.
In 2004, he moved to the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Spain, returning to the College in 2006 to lead a group of researchers working at the interface between chemistry and the biomedical sciences. Ramon has a particular interest in understanding the chemistry of metals in biological systems.