Condensed Matter/Materials & Biological Physics Seminar with Korey Carter on Structural, Spectroscopic, and Biochemical Tools

From potential contamination of individuals with radioactive fission products after a nuclear accident to the therapeutic use of radioisotopes for cancer diagnostics and treatment, the biological chemistry of actinides is not only relevant to a number of applied problems, it has also revealed some outstanding selectivity and specificity features of natural systems for f-element binding. Understanding the fundamental bonding interactions of these selective metal assemblies presents a rich set of scientific challenges as well as opportunities to design new  molecular architectures with specific applications in mind. Our experimental approach uses a combination of structural, spectroscopic, and biochemical studies to characterize the selective binding of f-block metal ions by natural and biomimetic hard oxygen-donor architectures. X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as X-ray absorption (XAS) and luminescence spectroscopies will be emphasized as these techniques have allowed for the first direct comparison of analogous small molecule and macromolecular complexes, as well as a pathway to explore f-element periodicity and electronic structure through the lens of some of the most exotic natural (AcIII) and synthetic (EsIII) radionuclides in the periodic table.