Radiochemistry

Faculty Labs

The Drain Lab
The late Professor Charles Drain
Supramolecular Photonics, Nanomaterials, Phototherapeutics

The Drain Lab research falls broadly into several areas interconnected by the themes of self-assembly and energy transduction: Self-Assembly of Supramolecular Photonics (organic, inorganic and materials chemistry), Combinatorial Chemistry & the molecular recognition of biomolecules (organic and biochemistry), Membrane Electrostatics & Conduction (theoretical and biophysical   chemistry), & Porphyrin Photophysics (physical chemistry).

The Francesconi Lab
Lynn Francesconi, Professor
Inorganic, Radiochemistry

The Francesconi Lab at Hunter in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory are investigating the production and processing of medically required radionuclides such as ²²⁵Ac, a promising alpha radionuclides for alpha target therapy, as to supply the medical research and clinic demand. In addition, separations using new materials and Metal Organic Frameworks are being evaluated for sequestration and development of newly radiopharmaceutical generators for supplying radioisotopes. Fundamental studies of the isotope ⁹⁹Tc, a prevalent product of uranium fission and environmental contaminant are conducted.

The Alexandratos Lab
Spiro Alexandratos, Professor
Polymer, Environmental Chemistry

The Alexandratos Lab approaches radiochemistry from the standpoint of separations and of sensors. Uranium is the key component of the nuclear fuel cycle and its recovery from seawater would mitigate the problems of terrestrial mining. Fibers are being developed as an environmentally compatible means of harvesting uranium from seawater. The problem is that the uranium is present at only 3.3 parts-per-billion in the presence of numerous other ions in far greater concentrations. A selective ligand must thus be developed that is permanently immobilized on the fiber. A promising approach has focused on bifunctional fibers with amidoxime as the selective ligand. In a separate problem, the removal of uranium from phosphoric acid is an issue of important environmental impact and this is being pursued with aminophosphonates ligands covalently bound to polystyrene beads. Finally, a sensor is being developed with inorganic polymers whose objective is to detect the presence of uranium in the environment.

The Zeglis Laboratory
Brian Zeglis, Associate Professor
Radiopharmaceuticals

The research in the Zeglis Laboratory focuses on the design, synthesis, preclinical validation, and clinical translation of novel pharmaceuticals for the imaging and therapy of disease, particularly cancer. The lab is particularly interested in work at the intersection of molecular imaging and bioorthogonal chemistry.

The Shusterman Lab
Jennifer Shusterman, Assistant Professor
Nuclear, Radiochemistry

The research in the Shusterman Lab is focused on the investigation of isotope production pathways, materials for heavy metal separations, and radiochemical measurements of nuclear reaction properties for application to the nuclear fuel cycle, medicine, forensics and fundamental nuclear science.