Organic Functional Group Transformations using Photocatalyst

Light-powered catalysis has found broad utility as a chemical transformation strategy, with widespread impact on energy, environment, drug discovery and human health. Over the past decade, light-mediated catalysis has enabled the discovery of valuable synthetic transformations, propelling it to become a highly utilized chemical synthesis strategy. The use of visible-light to enable single-

electron transfer (SET) between photoexcitable catalysts and organic molecules or transition metal catalysts via modulation of oxidation states.

Our group has developed photocatalytic methods to make various C-S/C-O/C-N, and S-S bonds as well as C-H functionalization through metallaphotoredox of small organic molecules. We are on a quest to design novel bimodal organic and metal-based photocatalysts with broad excited-state redox windows and leveraging photocatalysis to investigate complex biological environments. A noteworthy

application impacting human health is light-induced sensitization of cofactors for photodynamic therapy (PDT) in cancer treatment. The clinical adoption of this photosensitization approach has inspired the search for other photochemical methods, such as photoredox catalysis, to influence biological system. We are also exploring the use of light-driven energy transfer (EnT) and electron

transfer (ET) mechanism to activate biomolecules using organelle localized iridium catalysts in a complex cellular environment.