Dr. Papish was born and raised on Long Island, NY. She studied chemistry at Cornell Univ. (BA, 1997) and Columbia Univ. (PhD, 2002). She has taught at Franklin & Marshall College (2002-3), Salisbury Univ. (Asst. Prof. 2003-2007), Drexel Univ. (Asst. Prof. 2007-2012, Assoc. Prof. 2012-2013), and at the Univ. of Alabama (Assoc. Prof. 2013-2019, Full Prof. 2019-present). She is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award (2009) and has been honored with the "Outstanding Research Mentor of the Year Award" at Salisbury Univ. in 2007 and with the "College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award" for excellence in teaching and mentorship from Drexel Univ. in 2012. In 2013, Papish and her student received the "Division of Inorganic Chemistry Award for Undergraduate Research" from the American Chemical Society. Her research is currently supported by NSF and NIH. https://papishgroup.as.ua.edu
Representative Publications
- Light-responsive and protic ruthenium compounds bearing bathophenanthroline and dihydroxybipyridine ligands achieve nanomolar toxicity towards breast cancer cells, O. Oladipupo, S.R. Brown, R.W. Lamb, J.L. Gray, C.G. Cameron, A.R. DeRegnaucourt, N.A. Ward, J.F. Hall, Y. Xu, C.M. Petersen, F. Qu, A.B. Shrestha, M.K. Thompson, M. Bonizzoni, C.E. Webster, S.A. McFarland, Y. Kim, E.T. Papish. Photochem. and Photobiol. 2021, published online: https://doi.org/10.1111/php.13508
- Singlet oxygen formation vs. photodissociation for light-responsive protic ruthenium anticancer compounds: The oxygenated substituent determines which pathway dominates, F. Qu, R.W. Lamb, C.G. Cameron, S. Park, O. Oladipupo, J.L. Gray, Y. Xu, H.D. Cole, M. Bonizzoni, Y. Kim, S.A. McFarland, C.E. Webster, E.T. Papis., Inorg. Chem. 60, 2138–2148, 2021
Research Interests
We aim to apply bioinorganic and organometallic chemistry to problems that relate to green chemistry and sustainability. We are exploring how protic and electron donor groups impact catalysis. We have pursued reactivity inspired by the need for energy storage, specifically carbon dioxide reduction. Recently, we designed new pincer ligands using N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) and pyridinol rings that can change their properties by protonation and deprotonation, rather than lengthy synthesis. The most active transition metal catalysts with these pincers are record setting and use methoxy groups which balance electron donor ability with stability. This has allowed for formation of ruthenium and nickel complexes that perform catalytic and light driven carbon dioxide reduction. CO2 reduction is of fundamental importance to the impending global energy crisis, and carbon dioxide reduction (when coupled with water oxidation) can allow for a sustainable method of energy storage in solar fuels. Furthermore, we have studied our hydroxyl substituted bipyridine ligands as a part of ruthenium based anticancer metallo-prodrugs. The ruthenium complexes are light activated and show selective toxicity towards cancer cells (vs. normal cells).
