College of Science Magazine
Issue No.1 Fall 2005
Chemical and biological researcher s team up to
develop ne w light-activated cancer therapies
C
all it coincidence. Call it destiny.
Call it good fortune. Whatever it
was, when two young scientists
met at new faculty orientation at Virginia
Tech in 1992, it was the start of something
great.
In the 13 years since then, Karen Brewer, professor of
chemistry, and Brenda Winkel, professor of biology, have
led research teams that have developed new and potentially
revolutionary ways of treating cancer in humans.
A plant biologist and inorganic chemist working side-byside? It seemed an unlikely union, but when a graduate
student in chemistry that same year expressed an interest
in taking a biological focus in his research, the deal was
sealed.
Light absorbing unit
Active sites
their work focused on the other drawback with Cisplatin
– that tumors can become resistant to the drug. And that’s
where the beauty of having a biologist and chemist working
closely together really started to show.
While Winkel’s team worked on DNA i