Elemental mapping of gold- and iridium-based anticancer drug candidates in single mammalian cells

The large diversity of metal complexes provides attractive platforms for anticancer drug design. We recently synthesized iridium(III) and gold(III) complexes that inhibit cancer cell growth in vitro. It is generally thought that these metal drugs generate a dramatic redox imbalance but a comprehensive catalog of their direct biological targets supporting their mechanism of action is still lacking. We propose to undertake correlative studies combining chemical imaging of cells by Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Fluorescence (SR-XRF) with molecular imaging by optical microscopy to uncover their spatial distribution at the organelle level.