Research activities

The research activities of the laboratory are principally dedicated to the design of new molecules for diagnosis and/or therapy. They can be divided in two parts. The first one concerns the design of new contrast agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Optical Imaging, or Nuclear Imaging. These agents can be molecular (paramagnetic complexes of lanthanide ions) or nanoparticular (superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles grafted with different molecules of interest, …). The second part concerns the synthesis of new heterocyclic molecules with biological activity against bacterial microorganisms (antibacterial or flocculation activity) for applications in materials chemistry or biocatalysis.

To conduct these researches, the laboratory possesses all the equipment needed for the synthesis, the purification and the characterization of the synthesized molecules or nanoparticles : flash chromatography, LC-MS, IR spectroscopy, UV-Visible and fluorescence spectrometers, dynamic light scattering for the size measurement of nanoparticles, 3 NMR spectrometers equiped with a superconducting magnet of 7 T, 11.75 T and 14 T respectively, several relaxometers at fixed field (0.47 T and 1.47 T), and one field cycling relaxometer to characterize the efficacy of contrast agents for MRI. Moreover, a strong collaboration with the Center for Microscopy and Molecular Imaging (CMMI) in Gosselies allows a facilitated access to the Imaging facilities of the Center in order to test in vitro and in vivo the synthesized contrast agents.

Our unit is also associated with the following UMONS research institutes :