Our Research

Welcome to the home page of the interdisciplinary research group at the University of Michigan's Chemistry Department led by Professor Mark M. Banaszak Holl.

We have active research programs in the following areas:

• Organometallic Chemistry: Main Group CH-activation chemistry (Si, Ge, Sn)
• The development of targeted nanotherapeutic devices and imaging agents for the treatment of diseases such as cancer.
• The use of polymers as vectors for gene therapy and cell transfection with a particular focus on how these polymers, and polymer/DNA polyplexes, cross the cell plasma membrane.

The organometallic chemistry revolves around a reaction we recently discovered that allows the direct activation of CH-bonds coupled with the formation of a Si-C, Ge-C, or Sn-C bond. The reaction is shown below for the example of Germanium (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 8986-8987; Organometallics 2006, 25, 4738-4740).