This interdisciplinary research project intends to exploits the potential of arene (aromatic hydrocarbon such as benzene or para-cymene) ruthenium and functionalised arene (aromatic containing chemical functions as substituents) ruthenium complexes as biological active compounds and to gain a better understanding on the mode of action of these arene ruthenium complexes within a biological environment.

In the first part of this project, the systematic synthesis of arene ruthenium porphyrin complexes, their structural characterisation and their potential for photodynamic anticancer therapy is proposed, which implies the synthesis of new organic porphyrin derivatives, the coordination to arene ruthenium units and the study of their chemical properties as well as the assessment of their biological activity.

The second part of this project focuses on the synthesis of functionalised arene ruthenium complexes in view to optimise the biological activity of the known anticancer drug systems previously synthesised in our laboratory [FNS 200021-111795] and to develop new family of anticancer drugs. The function attached to the arene ligand can be used as probe, biologically active agent, solvating agent or sensor. Moreover, new biological applications for arene ruthenium complexes will be as well explored.