Vicky Mah, PhD Candidate

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

CHEMISTRY 603

FINAL PhD PRESENTATION

SPEAKER:            Vicky Mah, PhD Candidate

DATE:                     Wednesday, June 10, 2009

TIME:                      1:00 pm

PLACE:                  ST 135

TITLE:                    Multi-spectroscopic studies on heavy metal complex formation with glutathione         

ABSTRACT:

Human exposure to the toxic heavy metals Hg²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Pb²⁺ has dramatically increased since the industrial revolution. Biological systems have evolved protective mechanisms against the detrimental effects of these toxins: complex formation with endogenous thiols is one such mechanism. Glutathione (g-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine) is the most abundant non-protein thiol in cells, with concentrations ranging 0.1-10 mM. One of the key roles for this tripeptide is to detoxify heavy metals. In this lecture the structural characterization and speciation analysis for the complexes formed between glutathione and each of the heavy metal ions Hg²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Pb²⁺, will be described in aqueous solutions and in the solid state using a multi-spectroscopic approach.