Ulrich T. Mueller-Westerhoff
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(b. 1937)
University of Tasmania, Hobart, 1995, 2000, 2003
Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany,
1991, 1993
University of Würzburg, Germany, 1988-1989
Alexander-von-Humboldt Senior U.S. Scientist Award,
1988
Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires, Grenoble, France, 1976-1977,
1989
IBM Research Laboratory, San Jose, 1968-1982
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley,
1967-68
Ph.D., Technical University of Darmstadt, 1967
M.S., University of Munich, 1964
B.S., University of Marburg, 1960
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The synthesis
of ferrocenyl-substituted dithiolenes has provided us
with access to Near-IR absorbers in previously inaccessible
regions. The two examples below represent this type
of compound and show the position of their Near-IR maxima
in dichloromethane solution at 1235 and 1594 nm, respectively.
The modification of dithiolenes to allow their attachment
to immunoconjugates is another active research area.
Since dithiolenes do not emit any light, all absorbed
energy is converted to heat. Because immunoconjugates
target specific cell sites, attaching dithiolenes to
them gives us a new method to selectively destroy tissue:
irradiation by a NIR laser heats up only the selected
site until these cells are killed. This is a new possibility
for cancer therapy, which is particularly useful because
Near-IR light penetrates tissue much better than visible
light. The dithiolene below is one example of such compounds;
it absorbs at 1059 nm, the wavelength of the Nd laser.
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