Photoresponsive antibiotics and cytotoxic agents:On the use of light for the advancement of medicine and the knowledge of living organisms

Cancer and the appearance of drug resistant bacteria are two of the major health problems of modern day society. The causes of cancer are numerous and not fully understood, making prevention difficult and treatments harsh as they cause many side effects. The rise in the drug resistances of bacteria is better understood, but as hard to combat as it is induced, in part, by the daily uncontrolled release of active antibiotics in nature by humans. Many ways are currently being investigated to better understand and combat these problems. A method which provides an answer to both of these is presented in this thesis. Herein, we present our work towards creating new types of drugs, which possesses either all the potency of modern anticancer drugs or of antibiotic drugs, but who additionally contain a light driven trigger that would allow us to control with the uttermost precision when and where this drug is active. This minute control, only made possible by the development of lasers, would allow us to only activate the drug where it is most needed, thereby lowering the side effect of cancer therapy or ensuring no active drug escapes into the environment, halting the uncontrolled growth of bacterial resistance. In addition, we take advantage of our knowledge of these new compounds to develop variations that could be used as probes to investigate the effect of oxidative stress on the human body, which has been shown to be potentially related to many diseases