Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
School of Physical Sciences
Department of Chemistry
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Recently, a forensic laboratory has been established in the Department Chemistry to analyse illegal drugs. The purpose of the laboratory is to support the Hatfield Court initiative of the University, by supplying analytical evidence on confiscated material that can stand up to legal scrutiny. A Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) has been bought and temporarily installed for this purpose. A post has been created for a qualified person to assist with the analyses. It is planned that postgraduate students will also be trained in this laboratory. In the Department of Chemistry a dedicated research project (sponsored by the NRF) under leadership of Prof. I Cukrowski is doing cutting-edge research on bone cancer. Bone cancer is among most common and unfortunately most painful cancer-related diseases. It occurs on all the continents and is, in most cases, a result of spreading out of breast and prostate cancerous cells. Bone, when under the attack of cancerous cells, dissolves too rapidly triggering a vigorous bone rebuilding process. This rapid dissolution and formation of bone are most likely the cause of enormous pain patients are experiencing but a real mechanism is not yet known. Bisphosphonates (BPs) are compounds that are commercially being used either for pain palliation or, when carrying a radioisotope, for cancer treatment (in addition to or instead of chemotherapeutic treatment). Even though BPs have been used for many years, their mechanism of action and their mode of interaction with bone attacked by a cancer are not well understood. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving (i) studying of complex formation reactions (modelling of species formed and the determination of stability constants) of BPs with selected metal ions (those important in human body, as well as lanthanides used in bone cancer therapy), (ii) blood plasma computational modelling of the transport of Metal-BP complex, (iii) Raman spectroscopic studies of interactions between BPs and hydroxyapatite (HA), a model compound used instead of a real bone, and many more. Recently, the research group embarked on the development of a computer model of an artificial bone, for example HA. They have already confirmed experimentally that HA and a real bone show very much the same chemistry, affinity to BPs and metal ions, and hence it makes perfect sense to use HA instead of real material bone. Modelling of HA is a challenge as the smallest unit that repeats itself throughout the compound known as HA contains over 70 atoms. This unit is not a complete compound but rather a fragment of a network and to model it properly one must incorporate many basic units. For the first time they have managed with the help of materials design specialists to generate an energy optimised structure of HA. The group is in the process of computing the theoretical Raman spectrum of optimised HA material – their hope is that the computed and experimentally recorded spectra will be similar enough to justify extending their studies.
Contact person: Prof I Cukrowski.
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