Edith Antunes
Edith Antunes
Dr. Edith Antunes
Position: Senior Researcher (NMR spectroscopist)
Department: Department of Chemistry
Faculty: Faculty of Natural Science
Qualifications: BSc (Rhodes), BScH (Rhodes), MSc (Rhodes), PhD (Rhodes)
Tel: 021 959 4020
Fax: 021 959 3055
Email: ebeukes@uwc.ac.za
Biography
Antunes E joined the Chemistry Department at UWC in 2014 as the
NMR spectroscopy specialist from Rhodes University where she was an instrument specialist and had completed my PhD in chemistry. This followed a move from Rhodes University where she had completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry and
geology through to a PhD in chemistry. She obtained her PhD in
marine natural products chemistry under the supervision of Prof. M. Davies-Coleman in 2003. She used
NMR various
NMR techniques extensively during this and her subsequent research.
Antunes E was fortunate to obtain an NRF postdoctoral scholarship where she would be able to study under Dr. W. Gerwick at Oregon State University, again in natural products. At OSU I worked primarily on cyanobacteria which contained highly potent peptides. She returned to Rhodes University to take up another postdoctoral post in natural products (this time marine algae) under Prof. D. Beukes. I transferred to Prof. T. Nyokong where she worked on nanomaterials and macrocycles such as phthalocyanines, porphyrins and corroles.
This led to a position as the DST/Mintek NIC-Sensors Manager at Rhodes University, where she was responsible for the
management of several pieces of equipment such as the TCSPC, XPS, MALDI-TOF MS, XRD, Raman and EPR spectrometers in addition to an HPLC (with DAD), an elemental analyser, a Surface area analyser and a TG/DTG analyser. During this time she acquired extensive experience in the management, training, use and maintenance of sophisticated research equipment such as the XRD, XPS and MALDI-TOF MS which is reflected in her research outputs.
Antunes E current research interests are therefore varied and include 1) the isolation and structural elucidation of novel, bioactive, natural products specifically from marine sponges; 2) the synthesis and photophysical characterisation of porphyrinoid macrocyles which may be employed as sensors, photocatalysts and as therapeutic agents for use in the treatment of
cancer using photodynamic therapy; 4) the synthesis and characterisation of nanoparticles such as quantum dots, noble metal and metal oxide nanoparticles, as well as upconversion nanoparticles for use as imaging agents and or as delivery platforms. More recently she has started work on the production of noble metal nanoparticles using completely ‘green’ methods. These research activities involve the use of a variety of spectroscopic techniques such as NMR, XRD, ICP-OES, NMR, LC-ESIMS, analytical and semi-preparative HPLC, GC, DSC, TG, Raman and IR methods, including XPS, EPR and MALDI-TOF MS.
Research Interest
chemistry
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