Curriculum Vitae Dr. Carmelo García
Doctor Degree Carl Schrolemmer Hochschule, Germany (1982) Doctoral Thesis
"Photochemical Reactions of Model-Compounds of Epoxy-Resins"
Post-doctoral Research on Quantum-Chemical Calculations on the butadiene
photochem ical reaction at the FU-Berlin, West Germany (Under supervision of V.
Bonaci? -Kouteck? ) Photochemistry, Quantum Chemistry and Laser Photomedicine
Sabbatical Leave at Harvard Medical School, Research on photomedicine (under
of Dr. Irene E. Kochevar) and Visiting Associate Professor at the Harvard
Visiting Chemist at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA)
Honor registration at the University of Puerto Rico
Magna Cum Laude (Assoc. Degree - Natural Sciences)
Magna Cum Laude (Ph.D. Physical Chemistry)
UPR Recognition for Academic Excellence and Productivity
UPR Recognition for Academic Excellence and Productivity
Research Interests
Antipsychotic or neuroleptic drugs are used primarily for the treatment of schizophrenia, but
also have applications in mania, anxiety, dementia and drug abuse. The major used
neuroleptics belong to the general tricyclic antidepressants family (phenothiazines,
dibenzazepines and dibenzodiazepines). Most of the derivatives of these drugs do also produce
serious side effects, including extrapyramidal syndrome (EPS), tardative dyskinesia,
parkinsonism, allergy and photosensitization. Small changes in the structure of the derivatives,
change the mode of action of the drugs, the potency and the spectrum and severity of the side
effects. The molecular photochemical mechanisms for their photosensitizing ability are still
unknown, even through they are actually used in the United States to treat thousands and
thousands of psychiatric patients annually. Recent studies on the laser flash photolysis of some
phenothiazine derivatives showed that the triplet state of chlorinated phenothiazine derivatives
can be efficiently quenched by the protons in the solution. The effectiveness of the quenching is
very sensitive to the structure of the drug and seems to correlate with their phototoxicity.
The goal of ours project is to measure the photophysical properties of a selected group of
tricyclic neuroleptics and to study their short-lived transients, especially the cation radical and
the triplet. Basic UV-Vis and luminescence techniques will be employed to study their
absorption/emission properties. The transients will be characterized using optical absorption
measurements with a Nd-YAG laser set-up. For the triplet state of these compounds, the
extinction coefficient and the quantum yield will be determined using a comparative method
and the triplet-triplet energy transfer principle, respectively. Combined MM+/PM3/RHF
theoretical calculations will be performed with HyperCHEM™ on the whole set of photophysical
parameters. The experimental and theoretical values will be correlated with the phototoxicity
of the drugs to find out if the triplet transient is directly involved in the phototoxic activity of
this drug family. The major goal of this project is to find a molecular/photophysical descriptor
for the phototoxic side effect of tricyclic antipsychotics.
Recent Publications
1. C. García, G. A. Smith, W. G. McGymsey, R. Redmond, I. E. Kochevar (1995); Mechanism
and solvent dependence for photoionization of promazine and chlorpromazine; J. Am. Chem. Soc.117(44), 10871-10878
2. R. Oyola, R. Arce, A. E. Alegría, C. García (1997); Photophysical properties of gilvocalcins
V and M and their binding to calf thymus DNA; Photochem. Photobiol.65, 802-810
3. I.E. Kochevar, C. García and N. Geacintov (1998); Photoaddition to DNA by
Nonintercalated chlorpromazine molecules;Photochem. Photobiol.68 692-697
4. O. Cox, J. A. Dumas, L. A. Rivera, C. García and A. E. Alegría (1999) Electrochemical and
Electron Spin Resonance Studies of Selected Benzazolo[3,2-a]quinolinium Salts;; J. Heteroc. Chem . 36, 943-947
5. A. E. Alegría, C. García, G. Santiago, G. Collazo, J. Morant (2000); "Intramolecular
hydrogen bonding inhibits semiquinone-Mg2+ complex formation"; J. Chem. Perkin Trans.
6. García, C.; Oyola, R.; Piñero, L. E.; Cruz, N.; Alejando, F.; Arce, R. and Nieves, I. (2002);
Photophysical, Electrochemical and Theoretical study of Protriptyline in several solvents; J. Phys. Chem. B; 106(38), 9794-9801
7. Arce, R.; García, C.; Oyola R.; Piñero, L.E.; Nieves, I. and Cruz, N. (2003); Photophysical
and photochemical properties of amitriptyline and nortriptyline hydrochloride: A 266 nm
nanosecond laser flash and theoretical study; J. Photochem. Photobiol. A:Chem.; 154, 245-
GENDER MEDICINE/VOL. 7, NO. 4, 2010 Commentary Sex, Gender, and Pharmaceutical Politics: From Drug Development to Marketing Jill A. Fisher, PhD1; and Lorna M. Ronald, PhD2 1Center for Biomedical Ethics & Society, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; and 2Interdisciplinary Studies Program, John Jay College (City University of New York), New York, New York Background
PETER HESSELDAHL GROUND RULES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Chapter 14 THERE MUST BE ROOM FOR ERROR You probably remember being a child, studying a ladybug crawling up a leaf of grass, upwards towards the sunlight. Eventually, it reaches the tip, where it can’t climb any further – so it spreads its wings and flies. But what do you do if you don’t have wings? There are two possibilities: E