Murakami, Heide, authorCrans, Debbie C., advisorReynolds, Melissa M., committee memberZadrozny, Joseph M., committee memberCrick, Dean C., committee member2023-06-012025-05-262023https://hdl.handle.net/10217/236674This dissertation contains the development, synthesis, and characterization of vanadium metal complexes in both biological environment and organic solutions for the purpose of novel medical treatments. As cancer is a disease that causes uncontrollable growth of mutated cells over time, treatments need to also improve to account for an ever-increasing cancer types. Although platinum-based drugs have found successful in treating multiple forms of cancer, inorganic metal based drugs are relatively uncommon in the medical field. It was found in 2020, that a vanadium compound was more potent than cisplatin and efforts were made to investigate and improve that compound. The compound is a ternary V(V) complex that consists of VOL1L2 where L1 is N-(salicylideneaminato)-N'-(2-hydroxyethyl)ethane-1,2-diamine and L2 is 3,5-di-tert-butylcatechol. It is believed that that hydrophobicity of the catechol ligand was significant in keeping the compound intact long enough to cause cytotoxicity in bone cancer cells. In Chapter 1, the biological effects of vanadium and the reasoning that vanadium may be used as a potent medical treatment for various illnesses such as bone cancers, brain cancers and/or tuberculosis are investigated. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterization of halogenated version of the original vanadium Schiff base complexes to test how electronegativity affects the activity as well as testing how modification of the salicyaldehyde portion affects the metal complex. Chapter 3 reports the development of adamantanol catechol ligands to improve hydrophobicity in the vanadium Schiff base complex. Chapter 4 explains the speciation of working with a metal complex in a biological system by comparing two different vanadium systems and how they hydrolyze and form multiple different species in various environments. Chapter 5 summarizes the conclusions and proposes future works based on the research done that can move new projects forward.born digitaldoctoral dissertationsengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.TextEmbargo Expires: 05/26/2025