CAREER NETWORK World's one of the largest Research Career Network Benefits Academic & Industry jobs Project funding Visiting faculty positions Visiting scientist positions Invited talks and more... Register FREE Global Journal of Inorganic Chemistry 2012, 3: 9 Review Article Transition metal porphyrins as photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy Shawn Swavey Department of Chemistry, University of Dayton, 300 College Park, Dayton, OH. 45469-2357, USA Abstract This review describes some recent advances in transition metal porphyrin chemistry. When thinking of metalloporphyrins one often considers the metal coordinated in the center of the porphyrin macrocycle. This is very often the case, and as potential photosensitizers this type of metal insertion into the porphyrin core can enhance the photophysical properties of the free base porphyrin. This can be observed by red shifts in light absorption moving the light activated photosensitizer closer to the photodynamic therapy window; in addition, insertion of a metal can also enhance the interaction of the porphyrin complex with DNA. Another rapidly growing field of inorganic porphyrin chemistry involves peripheral coordination of metal complexes to porphyrin macrocycles. This technique often involves complex synthesis however the result can add a great deal of versatility to the use of the metal porphyrin as a photosensitizer in photodynamic therapy. Keywords Photodynamic therapy; Transition metal; Porphyrin; Metalloporphyrin