Niamh Attends the Microscopy Society of Ireland Symposium 2024

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Last week, Niamh returned to the University of Limerick to share her research on “Investigating Mechanically Interlocking Molecules with the btp [2,5(1,2,3-triazole-4-yl]pyridine motif” during the Microscopy Society of Ireland Symposium 2024. Her presentation highlighted the results of her SEM Solvent studies. Niamh enjoyed the opportunity to attend interesting highlighting the cutting-edge research being carried out in Ireland today. A special expression of gratitude goes to all those involved in organizing this enriching event at the Bernal Institute.

Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry Conference 2023

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Members of the Gunnlaugsson Group were thrilled to participate in MASC 2023 at the University of Birmingham. A huge thanks to this year’s host, Dr. Tim Barendt and the organising committee for a great conference! A fantastic arrangement of talks and posters were presented, highlighting the exciting developments in the field.

Well done to Dr. Oxana Kotova, Dr. Adam Henwood, Connie Sigurvinsson, Niamh O’Shea and Bláithín Rawson for their poster presentations, showcasing the latest advancements in their respective works

The group is looking forward to MASC 2024 in York!

Celebrating 25 Years of Excellence: Thorri’s Milestone at Trinity College Dublin

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Thorri Gunnlaugsson recently marked his 25th anniversary at Trinity College Dublin. To commemorate this occasion, Thorri led a seminar titled “25 years in the making: Study of Luminescence Supramolecular Self-Assembly in TCD.” It was an opportunity to showcase the incredible work, research, and contributions he has made over the years.

Celebrations continued the following day, as the group gathered for lunch to honour Thorri’s accomplishments, with special guest – Toby!

As we look back on these 25 years of dedication and innovation, we extend our congratulations to Thorri and express our gratitude for his invaluable contributions to the field of supramolecular chemistry. Here’s to many more years of ground breaking research and achievements!

Tomas Visits the Palli Thordarson’s group in UNSW, Sydney

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In early October, Tomas returned from a 2 month research visit in Palli Thordarson’s lab at UNSW, Sydney where he worked on a collaborative research project concerning the binding of RNA to luminescent Eu(III) complexes. The combined experience of supramolecular interactions in biochemistry and coordination chemistry resulted in a very successful short study, awaiting publication. Tomas would like to thank Palli and Thorri for organising this collaboration and the wonderful people at UNSW.

A Warm Welcome to our New SS Students

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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!

The 16th International Conference on Materials Chemistry (MC16)

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Members of the Gunnlaugsson group participated in the 16th International Conference on Materials Chemistry that was held this year in UCD, Dublin. Our group members were grateful to be there and attended various interesting talks highlighting recent research achievements in various fields of materials chemistry from approaches to material design and discovery to future materials, materials for energy and materials for life.


Well done to Dr. Adam Henwood, Connie Sigurvinsson, Niamh O’Shea, Dr. Oxana Kotova and past member Deirdre McAdams for presenting results of their works as poster presentations.

We thank the organisers for this interesting conference and to our funding agencies who are always supporting our research (AMBER, SSPC, SFI, School of Chemistry TCD).

Laura’s Visit to the University of Valencia

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Laura had the amazing opportunity to visit the University of Valencia on the 27th of April in order to gain additional cell study knowledge. Laura completed a month of cell studies where she learnt all the biological techiches for cultivating cells and testing her compounds. This was done with the aid of Isabel Abanades Lazaro and her group at the Crystal Engineering Lab (CEL), which is part of the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol) at the University of Valencia. Congratulations to Laura for making another big commitment towards her research!

Tómas Gives a Flash Talk at ISMSC 2023

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A huge congratulations to  Tómas Arnar Guðmundsson for delivering an excellent flash talk, titled “Engineered Supramolecular Gels as 3D-Printable Functional Materials.” at this years ISMSC conference. Tómas proceeded to present a poster on his work, inline with the talk he delivered early that day. Fantastic work as always!