Welcome!
Rooted in Samford University's commitment to pre-professional degree paths such as pre-med, pre-pharm, and nursing, the Wiget Research Group is devoted to providing every Samford undergraduate student the opportunity to perform publishable research, increasing his or her competiveness in his or her career path. Dr. Wiget's research interests lie in providing students access to projects in chemical biology and other biochemical fields closely allied with synthetic organic chemistry, through carefully chosen synthetic methods. This research aims to develop new methodologies for the construction of biologically active compounds in order to examine the relationships between small changes in the compounds' structures and how they behave in the pertinent biological systems (structure-activity relationship or SARs). These new methods then open the possibility to study the mechanisms of the reactions employed. Additionally, the research provides avenues to improve known cytotoxic materials, such as organoruthenium complexes. Through advanced ligand design and the incorporation of cell-targeting peptides (CTPs), the organoruthenium research aims at expanding the potential of these complexes as photo dynamic therapy agents (PDTs).