Directory

Liviu Mirica's directory photo.

Liviu Mirica

Professor

Primary Affiliation

Multimodal Vascular Imaging

Affiliations

Status Part-time Faculty

Home Department of Chemistry

Phone

Email mirica@illinois.edu

Address 2043 Beckman Institute, 405 North Mathews Avenue

  • Biography

    Liviu Mirica is a professor in the Department of Chemistry. After working as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley, in 2008 he started his independent career in the Department of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. In January 2019 he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois. His additional affiliations include beig a Janet and William H. Lycan professor for the School of Chemical Sciences and a professor for Biomedical and Translational Sciences, Bioengineering, and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

    Education

    • B.S., chemistry, California Institute of Technology, 1999

    • Ph.D., chemistry, Stanford University, 2005

  • Honors

    • 2018: Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry

    • 2017: BK21–KAIST Lectureship Award, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

    • 2017: Innovation Award, St. Louis Academy of Sciences

    • 2016: Saint Louis Award, ACS St. Louis Section

    • 2014: Organometallics Young Investigator Fellowship, ACS Division of Organic Chemistry

    • 2014: Saltman Lectureship, Metals in Biology Gordon Research Conference

    • 2013: NSF CAREER Award

    • 2012: Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year Award, Washington University

    • 2012: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship

    • 2011: Outstanding Faculty Member Nominee, Freshman Class Council & First Year Center

    • 2011: Sony Electronics Scholarship Award for Excellence in Teaching, Washington University

  • Research

    Research Areas:

    • Synthetic inorganic and organometallic chemistry applied to renewable energy catalysis and oxidative organic transformations

    • Development of bifunctional therapeutic and diagnostic agents for amyloid peptide disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease

    • Study of the role of transition metal ions in neurodegenerative diseases

    Liviu Mirica’s research program falls under the general areas of synthetic inorganic and organometallic chemistry and chemical biology. The pursued research projects include the synthesis and characterization of novel transition metal complexes that can mediate multi-electron redox processes relevant to energy applications and oxidative organic transformations. Targeted reactions include the aerobic oxidative C-C coupling of hydrocarbons catalyzed by high-valent late transition metal complexes, and catalytic oxidative C-H functionalization and C-C/C-heteroatom bond formation reactions using green oxidants. In addition, they are investigating the role of transition metal ions in the aggregation of amyloid ß (Aß) peptides in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and they develop bifunctional metal-binding and metal-containing bifunctional compounds as potential therapeutic and diagnostic agents for AD.

  • 2018

    • Rana, M., Cho, H. J., Roy, T. K., Mirica, L. M., & Sharma, A. K. (2018). Azo-dyes based small bifunctional molecules for metal chelation and controlling amyloid formation. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 471, 419-429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ica.2017.11.029
    • Tang, F., Park, S. V., Rath, N. P., & Mirica, L. M. (2018). Electronic: Versus steric effects of pyridinophane ligands on Pd(III) complexes. Dalton Transactions, 47(4), 1151-1158. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7dt04366j

    2017

    • Bandara, N., Sharma, A. K., Krieger, S., Schultz, J. W., Han, B. H., Rogers, B. E., & Mirica, L. M. (2017). Evaluation of 64Cu-Based Radiopharmaceuticals that Target Aß Peptide Aggregates as Diagnostic Tools for Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139(36), 12550-12558. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b05937
    • Sharma, A. K., Schultz, J. W., Prior, J. T., Rath, N. P., & Mirica, L. M. (2017). Coordination Chemistry of Bifunctional Chemical Agents Designed for Applications in 64Cu PET Imaging for Alzheimer's Disease. Inorganic Chemistry, 56(22), 13801-13814. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b01883
    • Watson, M. B., Rath, N. P., & Mirica, L. M. (2017). Oxidative C-C bond formation reactivity of organometallic Ni(II), Ni(III), and Ni(IV) complexes. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139(1), 35-38. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b10303
    • Wessel, A. J., Schultz, J. W., Tang, F., Duan, H., & Mirica, L. M. (2017). Improved synthesis of symmetrically & asymmetrically: N -substituted pyridinophane derivatives. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 15(46), 9923-9931. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ob02508d