10.4225/03/5aa7347024809 ROBBIN RALF VERNOOIJ ROBBIN RALF VERNOOIJ New materials for cancer imaging and therapy Monash University 2018 anticancer agents vibrational spectroscopy mechanism of action Inorganic Chemistry Physical Chemistry of Materials Computational Chemistry 2018-03-12 23:10:35 Thesis https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/New_materials_for_cancer_imaging_and_therapy/5951023 The increasing burden of cancer on society drives the development of more effective chemotherapeutic agents. The work in this thesis is therefore centred on the examination of a new series of metal-based anticancer prodrug candidates. These metal-based compounds do not exhibit toxicity in the dark, but can be activated with light in cancerous areas, avoiding unwanted side-effects in healthy tissues. A range of state-of-the- art spectroscopic techniques, including vibrational spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation, are applied to study the chemical and biological properties of these compounds, revealing new insights into their mechanism of action.