Symposium

Molecular Nanotour Symposium 2023

Mainz, Germany

12-15 September 2023

Join us during Symposium Day
13th September 2023

Symposium

at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

13th of September

Abstract Submission

For submitting abstracts for contributions (poster or oral presentations) please fill in the form and follow the instructions.

You can download the abstract template from the attachment below:

The deadline for abstract submission is the 15th of July 2023.

Group leaders decide who will give an oral presentation. You either give an oral presentation or present a poster, not both. Oral presentations of group members have an overall time slot of 25 minutes. To allow for a discussion (5 minutes) you should plan for a 20-minute presentation.

For any questions regarding abstracts or presentations feel free to contact us (a.m.doze@rug.nl).

Keynote Speakers

Tanja Weil

Prof. Dr. Tanja Weil joined the Max Planck Society in 2017 as one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, heading the division “Synthesis of Macromolecules”. She studied chemistry (1993–1998) at the TU Braunschweig (Germany) and the University of Bordeaux I (France) and completed her PhD at the MPI for Polymer Research under the supervision of K. Müllen. In 2003, she received the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society. From 2002 to 2008 she managed different leading positions at Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH (Frankfurt) from Section Head Medicinal Chemistry to Director of Chemical Research and Development. In 2008 she accepted an Associate Professor position at the National University of Singapore. Tanja Weil joined Ulm University as Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry III / Macromolecular Chemistry in 2010. She has received numerous competitive funding at both national and international level including a Synergy Grant of the European Research Council (ERC). She serves in many advisory boards and steering committees: she is a member of the senate of the German Research Foundation, a member of the senate of the Leibniz Association and of the Leibniz evaluation panel. Tanja is an associate editor for JACS and a member of the editorial advisory board of ACS Nano. Her scientific interests focus on innovative synthesis concepts to achieve functional macromolecules and hybrid materials to solve current challenges in biomedicine and material science.

Photo by Elvira Eberhardt

Zbigniew Pianowski

Zbigniew Pianowski was born (1982) and raised in Krakow (Cracow) in the south of Poland. In addition to his early interest in chemistry he also completed 8-years of classical piano education. In 2001, he entered Interfaculty Mathematic and Sciences Collegium (MISMaP) at the Warsaw University, Poland. His master studies combined chemistry with selected subjects of biology and computer sciences. The practical work towards the master thesis was performed in the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences (team of Prof. M. Makosza) on the mechanisms of radical chemistry applied in organic synthesis (under Dr. K. Stalinski). It was followed by graduation with summa cum laude at the Department of Chemistry in 2004. The same year he joined the group of Prof. N. Winssinger in the Institut des Sciences et d’Ingenierie Supramoleculaires (ISIS) of the Universite Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg, France) for his doctoral studies on programmable supramolecular chemistry. He received his Ph.D. grade in 2008 for investigations on the use of peptidonucleic acids in biologically relevant templated reactions and encoding of combinatorial libraries of bioactive compounds. In late 2008, he became a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. D. Hilvert at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. There, he worked on engineering of protein capsids and synthesis of chemical probes for the process of directed evolution of enzymes. Since 2014, he became an independent research group leader at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Symposium schedule

9:00 Registration at JGU Mainz and place posters

9.30 Opening of the Symposium

By Prof. Ben Feringa and Prof. Pol Besenius

Session 1 - Responsive and Dissipative Systems

9.35 Keynote Lecture by Prof. Tanja Weil

Supramolecular chemistry in living systems

10:15 Aritra Sarkar (Walther group, JGUM)

Homeostatic self-regulation in dissipative self-assemblies.

10.40 Coffee break with posters (Session A)

Session 2 - Catalysis

11.30 Thomas Freese (Feringa group, RUG)

Iron oxide promoted photochemical oxygen reduction to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).

11.55 Johannes Winter (Waldvogel group, JGUM)

Direct electrochemical reductive synthesis - A tool for accessing novel compound classes of N-Oxy heterocycles.

12.20 Paco Visser (Feringa group, RUG)

Synthesis of 1-aryl-2-buten-1-ones by the cross-coupling of lithium alkoxybutadienes with aryl bromides.

12.45 Lunch

Session 3 - Photopharmacology

13.45 Keynote lecture by Dr. Zbigniew Pianowski

Photoswitching in cyclic dipeptides – materials and photopharmacology.

14:35 Melody Boëtius (RUG)

Molecular engineering of visible-light responsive Iminothioindoxyl photoswitches

15:00 Coffee break with posters (Session B)

Session 4 - Motors and Supramolecular Systems

16:00 Jessica Erlenbusch (Besenius group, JGUM)

Multicomponent supramolecular polymers for the design of fully synthetic biomaterials.

16:25 Lotte Stindt (Feringa group, RUG)

Activating a light-driven molecular motor by metal complexation.

16:50 Jude Ann Vishnu (Schmid group, JGUM)

Coarse grained simulations of light-driven responsive gels.

17:15 Poster prize announcement

17:20 Closing of the symposium

17:30 Networking drinks and BBQ

Activities

Team Building Activity

Program Feringa trip

Programme Feringa Trip

15th of September

Organized together with teams4teams and University of Groningen

This year we are taking the traditional Friday teambuilding activity one step further: we will actually do a team building exercise. Within our group, there is generally a friendly and collegial atmosphere. But at the same time, we are a very large and multicultural group of people that work spread out over several buildings and subgroups. This situation comes with challenges, and it is incredibly important that we keep communicating to maintain a good atmosphere.

On the Friday afternoon we will engage in teambuilding activities designed to improve our strength as a team. The big question here is: what does a good working environment look like, and how do we treat each other? How do we create a working atmosphere where people feel
safe, but are also receptive to constructive criticism and feedback?

We are looking forward to a fun and fruitful afternoon ending with a dinner.