A Warm Welcome to our New SS Students

A very big welcome to our SS students for this year. We’ve taken on four eager students who will generall be working with Napthalimides, Tróger’s bases and BTP’s using click chemistry. Conor Keeley, Emily Rafter, Ewan Tushkanov and Liwia Najda, respectively, have settled in nicely with the group and we hope to see them succeed in their chosen projects.

Conor Keeley

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Conor is very excited for the opportunity to carry out his SS Capstone Research Project in the Gunnlaugsson group. His project is based on Tröger’s bases derived from thiol-functionalised 1,8-naphthalimides. With the aid of other group members, Conor hopes to synthesise his target molecule and obtain full characterisation by the end of the lab phase.

Emily Rafter

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Emily is another student who is focused on satisfying results with the Gunnlaugsson group. Her aim is to carry out research regarding the 2,6-Bis(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine (btp) ligand. She will be practicing various lab techniques in order to do this, including understanding and applying the well known procedures for “Click Chemistry.”

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Ewan Tushkanov

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Ewan is a 4th year medicinal chemistry student and he aims to synthesise novel Tröger’s bases with potential to be used in DNA binding and anti-cancer therapeutics. While this seems like a daunting project, he feels confident in his abilities of producing interesting results for his thesis. With previous lab experience from being a summer student, Ewan has settled in quickly.

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Liwia Najda

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Liwia is also a medicinal chemistry student. She is attempting to synthesise supramolecular cages based on aminoquinoline derived Tróger’s base ligands. She has obtained a lot of lab experience since she’s joined us and is now putting in ample effort to hopefully produce a supramolecular cage. We wish her the best of luck!

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A New Visiting Student Joins!

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We’d like to warmly welcome our new visiting student, Dominik Mählmann!

Dominik joined us on the 31st of July, coming in all the way from Germany to work with us and complete a project for his Master’s thesis. Dominik completed his Bachelor’s degree in the University of Münster, Germany in 2022. Within the next 4 months with us, he will be working on a project involving the synthesis of novel macrocycles using naphthalimide fluorophores. He plans to fly back home to Germany after his 4 month period and start his master thesis at the beginning of next year in the Prof. Bart Jan Ravoo group (University of Münster).

We hope he has a sucessful period in our lab and enjoys the experience of being in the Gunnlaugsson group during his stay!

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New PhD Students Join the Group

The group continues to expand with two new PhD students, Bláithín Rawson and Niamh O’Shea!

Bláithín completed her Senior Sophister project with the group, and returned after attaining her B.A. in Medicinal Chemistry here in Trinity. She is continuing in her work on developing novel tetracationic cyclophanes, and probing their host-guest capabilities.

After completing her B.Sc in Physical Sciences and M.Sc in Applied Physics in the University of Limerick, Niamh decided to return to the field of chemistry. She is funded by The Centre of Doctoral Training in the Advanced Characterisation of Materials programme, a project between Trinity College Dublin, University College London, and Imperial College London. She aims to develop mechanically interlocking systems, such as rotaxanes, using the 2,6-Bis(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine (btp) motif and lanthanides. With the overall aim of developing novel functional materials for application in imaging, electronic and magnetic devices.

Two New Visiting Students Join!

We’d like to warmly welcome two new visiting students, Julien Rubens and Emeline Cartaud!

Julien joined the group on the 22nd of February and is a Belgian master student from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain). He chose to do his master the research sector of chemical science and joined the Gunnlaugsson complete his internship. The objective of his project will be focused on the synthesis of brand new macrocycle containing Troger’bases. He hopes to discover new properties with his work on these macrocyclic compounds for the next 4 months.

Emeline joined us on the 1st of March and is a final year French student about to finish her bachelors in chemistry at the University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier. She also joined the group in order to complete her internship in research. For the next 4 months, she will be working on lanthanide coordination complexes using the bis-triazole pyridines.

We’re very happy to welcome these two onboard!

Welcome to our new undergraduate students!

This September we are happy to welcome Tamsin, Valeria, Meg, and James to the group! Over the next semester they will be carrying out their undergraduate final year projects.

Tamsin and Valeria will be investigating novel naphthalimide Tröger’s bases, these are an exciting class of compounds due to their luminescence properties, which makes them of interest in imaging and materials science applications, and their bent structure which enables them to be used in self-assembly.

Meg and James will be working on the development of novel lanthanide coordination complexes and mechanically interlocked assemblies, using the 2,6-bis(1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine (btp) motif. Btps serve as a versatile coordination ligand with the capacity for both anion and cation binding. The motif can be easily functionalised giving the potential to generate libraries of novel ligands with ease.

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Welcome to Another New Member!

We’d like to warmly welcome our new visiting research student, Alyssa Spear!

Alyssa Spear is a visiting graduate student from the lab of Dr. Rob Doyle at Syracuse University (New York, USA), a former TCD Ph.D student who holds the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor & Dean’s Professor of Chemistry award.

Alyssa completed her undergraduate degree in neuroscience and chemistry in 2019 at Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio, USA) where she studied Re(I) complexes for application as contrast agents for fluoroscopic esophagography.  Alyssa is now in the 3rd year of her Ph.D and studies Re(I) tricarbonyl complexes with phenanthroline-naphthalimide ligands as photocatalysts for the reduction of CO₂. She will be collaborating with Dr. Adam Henwood and Connie to synthesize a series of naphthalimide ligands, which will be sent to Syracuse where Alyssa can study the Re(I) complexes. During her time at Trinity College Dublin, she will be learning about electrochemistry, aggregation-induced emission, and the corresponding characterization methods. 

The Group Gets Bigger!

We would like to extend our warmest of welcomes to the newest students to join our team!

Tommaso Ruggiero completed his undergraduate chemistry degree in 2020 in La Sapienza, Rome, and is completing his masters degee in Alma Mater Studiorum in Bologna. An Erasmus scholarship has let him join the Gunnlaugsson research group for an internship that will be the starting point for his future thesis. Tommaso’s work in the Gunnlaugsson group focuses on the synthesis of NDIBox and further studies about host-guest chemistry with several characterisation techniques.

Cillian Conville, an Irish student studying chemistry in the University of Bordeaux, France. Cillian has joined the team in order to complete his final year research internship, the focus of which will be on the delvelopment of tripodal hydrogelators, an investigation of their material properties, and potential utilisation in drug delivery.

Tommy Cejmer completed his undergraduate chemistry degree in 2019 at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of applied sciences and arts. Now, he is a MSc student of the Westfaelische-Wilhelmuniversity Muenster in Germany. He joined the Group of Gunnlaugsson for a research internship and will be working on Tröger’s base naphthalimides.

The Group Gets Even Bigger!

It is with great joy that we welcome our newest Postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Harlei Martin, to the Gunnlaugsson research group! Harlei completed her PhD in 2019 in Maynooth University under the supervision of Dr Trinidad Velasco-Torrijos. Her work involved the synthesis and biological evaluation of glycoconjugates as anti-adhesion ligands against pathogenic Candida albicans. After her PhD, she worked as an assistant lecturer in the Chemistry Department of Maynooth University, teaching Organic and Medicinal Chemistry modules. She then moved to Orléans, France as a postdoctoral researcher working on responsive contrast agents for cation detection under the supervision of former group member Dr Célia Bonnet. Harlei joined the group in September 2021 under the co-supervision of Assoc. Prof. Eoin Scanlan as an IRC postdoctoral fellow and will be investigating glycosylated napthalimides as prodrugs for cancer therapy.

Undergraduates Begin Their Final Year Project!

This September the Gunnlaugsson group are delighted to welcome four new TCD senior sophister students, Amy, Bláithín, Joanna and Sebastian, for their final year Capstone project. Amy’s research focus will on btp based interlocked molecules, Bláithín, Joanna and Sebastian will be focusing on Aminophthalimide Tröger’s bases.

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New PhD Student Joins the Group

Warmest of welcomes to our newest team member Owen Oseghale! Owen finished his undergraduate degree in Medicinal Chemistry at NUI Galway, were in his final year of studies he investigated various cis-platin appended nanoparticles, with the goal of increased delivery efficiency and tumour targeting ability.

With a great interest in exploring the biological field Owen achieved an MSc in Cellular Manufacturing & Therapy at NUI Galway, furthermore, he spent time at Hi-Tech Health where he worked on cell culturing world and ATMP production.

Owen joins the Gunnlaugsson group as an Amber funded student under the Co-supervision of Professor Valeria Nicolosi of Trinity College Dublin and Dr. Chris Hawes of Keele University Newcastle. His project will focus on the development of MOFs which have the potential to improve the performance of lithium and sodium-ion batteries. Welcome to the team Owen!!!