M. Helena Garcia has been mainly centered in synthesis of organometallic compounds in view to potential applications with benefit to the society, namely in the field of nonlinear optics and in the search of new anticancer metalodrugs for chemotherapy. She authored over one hundred publications and several book chapters. M. Helena Garcia has been leader of a number of national and European funded scientific research projects and for many years was Member of the “Division of Organometallic Chemistry of European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences”, as delegate of Portuguese Chemical Society.

Statement of the Problem: Research on the field of metal-based compounds for the treatment of cancer diseases has attracted increasing interest due to the urgency to find more efficient and  selective treatments than the platinum-based drugs in clinic use. In this frame, ruthenium compounds hold a prominent position

due to the success of NAMI-A and KP1019 in progressing through clinical trials. Nevertheless, this progress has been retarded due to problems concerning their aqueous instability and complicated ligand exchange chemistry, characteristic of

inorganic complexes.