Robert W. Redmond, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Dermatology and an Associate Chemist in the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Attending the Paisley College of Technology in Paisley, Scotland for his undergraduate and doctorate work, Dr. Redmond's focus of study has been in the field of chemistry.

At the Wellman Center, his research interests had focused on photochemical reactions intiated in biological environments, such as cells or tissue. In particular, interest was focused on the influence of the biological microenvironment on the reaction pathways and they way this can be influenced for therapeutic purposes. For example, he showed that the limitation of photoactive compounds to particular compartments of cells results in novel reaction processes that are not observed in simple model systems of fundamental photochemistry. Dr. Redmond's group was the first to quantitatively demonstrate a correlation between primary yields of reactive intermediates, observed in situ by transient absorption spectroscopy with biological endpoints such as cell death. Of particular interest was the effect of oxygen concentration on reaction processes and that novel processes could be harnessed under hypoxic conditions. More recent work had focused on secondary processes and an investigation of reactive oxygen species interactions as a function of diffusion range in cells or between cells. Lipid peroxidation as a causative factor in DNA damage, mutagenesis and the bystander effect had been demonstrated, leading to a new hypothesis for extended range of photosensitized damage in biological systems.

As described in more detail on Dr. Redmond's research page, one of his focuses in research has been in collaboration with Dr. Kathy Held investigating cellular responses to localized oxidative stress. Another focus in his research is in collaboration with Dr. Irene Kochevar developing photoactive tissue repair in the closure of wounds.