Jerry Goodisman  Professor Physical and theoretical chemistry applied to biology and electrochemistry goodisma@syr.edu phone: 315-443-3035 / fax: 315-443-4070 Office: CST 3-014E Education: • A.B., 1959, Columbia College • Ph.D., 1963, Harvard University Courses: • CHE 346: Physical Chemistry • CHE 356*: Physical Chemistry • CHE 656: Chemical Thermodynamics • CHE 666: Statistical Mechanics   * denotes current Spring '10 course

Research Interests As a theoretical chemist, I either collaborate with experimentally inclined colleagues, or work on my own interests. The latter includes the structure of the electrochemical interface, the process of agglomeration of atoms into clusters in the gas phase, and surfaces generated by vapor deposition. Most of my research in the last few years has involved the study of anticancer drugs, especially the platinum drugs. Although these drugs have been used effectively for decades, their mechanism of action is not really understood. Experiments carried out in the laboratories of Professor James Dabrowiak (SU) and Professor Abdul-Kader Souid (Upstate Medical University) have shown that common assumptions about how the drugs are transformed in the blood before entering cells are incorrect. I have been involved in analyzing and interpreting HSQC NMR measurements, UV spectra, oxygen consumption curves, and other experiments, with the aim of constructing a model for how the drugs enter cells, how they react with intracellular thiols (which may prevent drug from reaching the nucleus), how the platinum attacks nuclear DNA, and how the lesions on DNA lead to cell death (apoptosis). Understanding how killing of normal and cancer cells depends on drug concentration and exposure time should suggest new dosing protocols designed to destroy more cancer cells while lowering side effects. I have been involved in analyzing measurements of platinum concentration in the blood and plasma of pediatric patients, to determine which patient parameters should be considered in administering the drugs so as to obtain the desired level of platinum. Closely related are our studies of how anticancer drugs can be absorbed by silica and other nanoparticles, which, in turn, are absorbed by cells. After about twenty-four hours, the particles release the drug, killing the cells. Even the relatively nontoxic transplatin (an isomer of the effective drug cisplatin) becomes lethal to cells when introduced by nanoparticles.
In collaboration with Professor Joseph Chaiken, I have been analyzing how infrared laser light penetrates the top few layers of skin, produces fluorescence, Rayleigh scattering, or Raman scattering, and exits to a detector. Our model shows how measurements of the scattered light can be used to determine blood glucose, hematocrit, and other blood properties non-invasively. In Prof. Chaiken's apparatus, a patient's fingertip is pressed against an aperture in a metal plate, forming a dome; the laser source and the detector are on the other side of the plate. By taking into account the dome formed under pressure, we can explain why the intensity of the elastically scattered light varies oppositely to the intensity of the inelastically scattered light when the metal plate is moved.	Concentrations of several species formed with ultraviolet irradiation started at t = 0 and stopped at t = 0.4 s.
Selected Publications Chaiken, J.; Goodisman, J.; Deng, B.; Bussjager, R. J.; Shaheen, G. Simultaneous Noninvasive Observation of Elastic Scattering, Fluorescence and Inelastic Scattering as a Monitor of Blood Flow and Hematocrit in Human Fingertip Capillary Beds. J. Biomedical Optics, 2009, 14(5), 050505/1-050505/3. Tao, Z.; Goodisman, J.; Souid, A.-K. Kinetic Studies on Enzyme-Catalyzed Reactions: Oxidation of Glucose, Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide, and Their Combination. Biophysical J., 2009, 96, 2977-2988. Tao, Z.; Jones, E.; Goodisman, J.; Souid, A.-K., Quantitative Measure of Cytotoxicitty of Anticancer Drugs and Other Agents. Analytical Biochemistry, 2008, 38(1), 43-52. Tao, Z.; Goodisman, J.; Souid, A.-K. Dactinomycin Impairs Cellular Respiration and Reduces Accompanying ATP Formation. Molecular Pharmaceutics 2006, 3(6), 762-772. Chaiken, J.; Goodisman, J.; Kornilov, O.; Toennies, J.P. Application of Scaling and Kinetic Equations to Helium Cluster Size Distributions: Homogeneous Nucleation of a Nearly Ideal Gas. J. Chem. Phys. 2006, 125(7), 074305/1-074304/8. » View all Publications