Our research group memebers, Dr. Adam Henwood, Dr. Oxana Kotova and Patrick Manning, attended the SSPC Recruitment Drive at the University of Limerick (Kemmy Business School) on the 8th of May.They had the amazing opportunity to interact with representatives from major chemistry and bimedical companies such as SK Biotek, Boston Scientific, MSD, Pfizer, APC and Eli Llily.
Our members were delighted with the event as they felt that they learned about the variety of opportunities available to them. The event also gave them a space to make new connections We highly thank SSPC for organising this event and hope to see more like this in the future.
The group has recently published an article titled “Nanoscale assembly of enantiomeric supramolecular gels driven by the nature of solvents”in the RSC journal Nanoscale. The research was conducted by one of the group members, Tómas A. Gudmundsson, along with collaborators from the groups of Prof. Krishna Kumar Damodaran, University of Iceland, and Prof. Dave Adams, University of Glasgow.
The effect of mixing enantiomeric gelators on the self-assembly properties of low-molecular weight gels was assessed in different solvent types. It was observed that the properties of the multi-component gels were able to be tuned by solvent choice due to differences in gel-state packing. Additionally, it was found that the chirality of the fibrous assemblies was amplified by employing non-polar aromatic solvents. The Gunnlaugsson group is proud to be supported by AMBER, the SFI centrefor Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research. This agency is the reason why such research is possible. We also thank the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory, Dublin for providing the facilities to perform the electron microscopy analysis. The article can be found using the following [L I N K]
The Gunnlaugsson group was delighted to be apart of this years AMBER internal conference held at the stylish Alex Hotel on the 15th of April. We enjoyed the wholesome knowledge exchange and the opening talk from the Deputy Director General of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Ciarán Seoighe.
Many thanks also to the members involved with running the workshops provided. We’re looking forward to the next conference with great anticipation.
A huge congratulations to the now official Dr. Deirdre McAdams on fully graduating with her Ph.D in Chemistry. We’re proud to see another great member of the group making it across the finish line. We wish Deirdre all the best in her future academic goals!
To celebrate International Women’s Day, ItsHER held their Women in STEMM Summit at Trinity College Dublin in the Fitzgerald Physics Building. Niamh presented her poster on the “The Synthesis of Mechanically Interlocking Molecules using the btp [2,6-bis(1,2,3-triazole-4-yl)pyridine]” at the summit. There was some great talks and discussion panels about the careers and work/research women are carrying out in the STEM sector. Thank you to everyone who organised the event and those who visited Niamh’s poster for their insightful questions and thoughts.
The Gunnlaugsson group is happy to announce the publication of a new research article in the journal “Advanced Science“. In the work entitled “Ligand Chirality Transfer from Solution State to the Crystalline Self-Assemblies in Circularly Polarized Luminescence (CPL) Active Lanthanide Systems,” the authors utilised CPL techniques to prove the presence of enantiopure Eu(III) luminescent complexes in the solution, and solid state for their single crystals. Moreover, CPL Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy (CPL-LSCM) allowed these crystals to be examined in detail by recording enantioselective differential chiral contrast (EDCC) images. These findings open exciting new avenues toward the development of CPL-OLEDs and displays as well as complements the knowledge within CPL research of self-assembled supramolecular systems.
This work was started by Drs. David F. Caffrey and Niamh S. Murray and continued by Drs. Tumpa Gorai, Oxana Kotova and Steve Comby. The crystallographic data was analysed by Profs. Miguel Martínez-Calvo and Jonathan A. Kitchen as well as Bláithín Rawson. We also wanted to greatly acknowledge our longstanding collaboration with Prof. Robert D. Peacock from the University of Glasgow, Prof. Robert Pal, and Dr. Patrycja Stachelek from Durham University, without whom CPL as well as CPL-LSCM would not be possible. We thank Science Foundation Ireland, the SFI funded AMBER Center, Irish Research Council and Trinity College Dublin as well as the Royal Society University Research Fellowship and H2020 for financial support of this work. Last but not least, we thank Prof. Thorri Gunnlaugsson for all his efforts in the collaboration!
D’freastal Níamh ag an gCeimic as Gaeilge 2024 le ICI YCN ag Ollscoil na hÉireann. Bhí gach duine ag ceiliúradh Seachtain Na Gaeilge 2024 le dúirt gach duine ag caint faoin chemic as Gaeilge. Thug Niamh an chéad caint de a PhD. Bhí Niamh ag caint faoin a tionscadal “Móilíní atá idirghaolmhar go meicniúil agus Micreascópacht” agus a torthaí ag baint lei a cuid oibre. Thaispeáint Niamh a hoibre le íomhanna ón Micreascópacht leictreon a scanadh agus a hoibre le corás btps. Bhi gach cainteoir go hiontach ar fad agus an-suimiuil. Míle buíochas le gach duine ag freastal agus na duine ag eagraíocht an ócáid seo.
Niamh attended Chemic as Gaeilge held by ICI YCN at the National University of Ireland. Everyone was celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge 2024 by speaking about chemistry in Irish. Niamh gave her first talk of her PhD. Niamh talked about her project tilted “Mechanically interlocking molecules and Microscopy” and the results of her work. Niamh showed her work with SEM images and her work with btp systems. Every speaker/talk was excellent and very interesting. Many thanks to everyone in attendance and the organisers of the event.
The group have had their article titled “Tracking the cellular uptake and phototoxicity of Ru(II)-polypyridyl-1,8-naphthalimide Tröger’s base conjugates” accepted for publication in the RSC journal RSC Chemical Biology, in collaboration with the groups of Prof. Robert Elmes, Chemistry, Maynooth University, and Prof. Clive Williams, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, TCD, and with researchers from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. The article is the outcome of a long-standing collaboration between the these research groups within the area of developing luminescent Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes as cellular targeting probes and as photo-activated cancer therapeutics. The work described here is centered on the latter, as there are use of highly potent bis-Ru(II) complexes formed by using the highly-versatile naphthalimide Tröger base building platform, under low energy light dose. The work was supported by the SFI and the IRC and is published as an open access and can be downloaded here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/cb/d3cb00206c
Dr. Adam Henwood’s paper on AIE naphthalimide dyes for FLIM is out now in Chem (Cell Press)! This exciting work demonstrates how these dyes “time travel” through cells: by using FLIM we can visualise their transition from “On” to “Off” to “On” again as the dyes progress from nanoparticle assemblies to single molecules localised within lipid droplets in live cells. This work is a celebration of many current and past members of the group (Connie, Tomas, Sandra, Sachi, June, Hannah, and Chris), as well as valuable collaborative links with friends further afield (Prof. Donal O’Shea at RCSI and Prof. Denis Jacquemin at the University of Nantes). We also have to thank the integral roles played by the IRC and the SSPC, SFI’s Research Centre for Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Oxana Kotova attended the 7th Irish Biological Inorganic Chemistry Symposium (IBICS-7) that was held in UCD village on the 15th of December 2023.
The conference was organized by the former TG group member Dr. Joseph Byrne and plenary lectures were delivered by internationally distinguished researchers Professor Ramón Vilar from Imperial College London and Professor Petra Heffeter from Medical University of Vienna.
Another successful IBICS symposium! As always, we are excited to see what’s in store for the next one.
Photo: Drs. Oxana Kotova, Joe Byrne, and Simon Smith(left to right) happily enjoying the conference.
Gunnlaugsson Group, Trinity College Dublin 