News

28.07.2025 – Ole starts

Welcome back to Ole! After an internship and support as HiWi (and an industry stay in Sweden), Ole returns to the group as a Master’s student to work on a collaborative project with the Brügmann lab. Good luck, Ole!

25.07.2025 – Nils’ Abholung

Today, we took our new Wagon for a “swim” to pick up the freshly minted Dr. Nils and his PhD diploma from the Aula. Nils then made his way to the Gänseliesl fountain and climbed it with great ease, despite all the obstacles and fog hindering his way. Now, it’s truly official – Nils is PhDone!

23.07.2025 – Radek hosts the BENCh Colloquium

Radek hosts Jake Greenfield (University of Würzburg) for a BENCh colloquium in Göttingen organizing a packed (and hopefully exciting) day for Jake with plenty of room to interact with students. Well done, Radek!

21.07.2025 – Jan starts his internship

Welcome to Jan, our newest addition to the group. Jan starts his internship with Dennis today, making photopeptides change their structure with light! Much success!

18.07.2025 – Nils has a new paper!

And, he just does not stop! Just in time for the weekend, Nils’ paper on Photolabile Capsaicinoids gets accepted in RSC Chemical Biology! What a week! Congrats to Nils and co-first author Lucia Rojas from the Rhee group (MPI Göttingen)!

17.07.2025 – Nils defends his Thesis

Today, Nils became Dr. Nils! He gave a colorful presentation showing us one final time, why he thinks that light is cool, and highlights two chapters of his Thesis before asking the diverse questions of his examination board. He did a great job at both, so that is only thing left to say is: Congratulations to this achievement!

13-17.07.2025 – Jakub at the ICP in Aachen

Jakub travels to Aachen to attend the 32nd International Conference on Photochemistry scouting for us the latest trends in the field all the way from theory to synthesis. In-between, he had time to educate himself on the local (?) cuisine and landscape and used the occasion to visit historical sites.

03&07.07.2025 – Ananya and Betül start

We welcome Ananya and Betül to the group! Ananya will work in the context of CRC1286 linking up biomolecules in a target-specific manner, while Betül will support Milan studying how enzymes can be light-regulating. Much success!

01.07.2025 – New paper!

We publish a new paper in Chem. Eur. J. led by Lukas and Jacob with support from Radek and Jakub. Read here all about fluorinated azopyrazoles! A special thanks goes to Martina from the Alcarazo group for donating the key compound, that inspired the work.

01-02.07.2025 – The new synthesizer gets installed

Christmas came early this year – our new peptide synthesizer is being installed today. It was a long waited for new coworker, that hopefully will support us in moving the photo-peptide program forward! Please work hard, be free of malfunctions, and do not break easily!

27.06.2025 – Goodbye to Giulia

6 months just passed by in a glimpse! It’s already time to wish Giulia, our guest from Italy, farewell. Thank you, Giulia, for the great contribution to our research! We are looking forward to staying in touch with you to wrap up the work and wish you all the best for your future training and your graduation back in Italy!

22-27.06.2025 – Nadja speaks at the GRC “Switches and Motors”

Nadja travels to Boston, to join the Gordon Research Conference on Molecular Switches and Motors, and deliver a short presentation. Might as well have been the best GRC so far with so incredibly many new connections made. Thanks everyone for this fantastic week and, mostly, to Alex and Mindy for their kind invitation!

18.06.2025 – Jakub becomes Dr. Jakub and wins a Postdoc Fellowship

To become a fully-established postdoc, Jakub was only missing one detail – a PhD degree! So, he travelled back to Prague to defend and claim the latter highly successfully. As he had already picked up German-level organization skills, he timed his defense well with being awarded a postdoc fellowship. Congrats, Dr. Copko!

16-18.0.2025 – Nadja attends the Neuronal Cell Biology – Gottingen and Beyond Meeting

Just back from Finland, the next symposium awaits in the Göttingen backyard, aka, the Faßberg. At the “Neuronal Cell Biology” meeting, Nadja celebrates with friends and colleagues, the career of Prof. Dr. Jahn, in a scientifically high-end symposium. All the best for your future, Reinhard, thank you for your support and kind words on the way!

10-13.06.2025 – Nadja travels to Finland

Nadja travels to Helsinki, Finland, to speak at the ERC grantee conference at the Haikko manor. A fantastic place to discuss science and get new inspirations – and to catch up with former Groningen colleagues Annmarie and Ilayda! Thanks for the kind invitation, Arri!

06.06.2025 – Nils submits his PhD Thesis

It’s Done! Nils wraps it up and submits his PhD Thesis after bravely fighting the numbering of compounds, formatting in Word, and winning against the printer. Congratulations, Nils! A well-deserved break waits ahead!

28.05.2025 – Goodbye to Linda

All good things must end. After almost 2.5 years, Linda concluded her postdoctoral stay with us to start a new job in ‘the real world’. Linda, thank you so much for all that you have done for the group and your hard work moving the frontiers of chromoselective transformations! We are very happy that you are not (yet) moving too far away, so that we can still reach out and meet up easily. All the best for your future!!

22&27.05.2025 – Nadja gives lectures in Chemnitz and Kiel

Just back in Göttingen, Nadja goes on a small Germany-lecture tour and stops in Chemnitz and Kiel. In Chemnitz, she was invited by the Chemistry department to give a GDCh lecture (Thanks to Martin & Johannes for their hospitality). In Kiel, she was hosted by collaborator Elmar and spoke at the Biochemistry department enjoying many brainstorming-based discussions. Thanks for the invitation!

05-08.05.2025 – Nadja travels to Brunnen

Nadja travels south to attend the Bürgenstock conference in Brunnen. What a blast! So many scientific heros all together and finally meeting many people, previously only known through social media. Thanks for this unforgettable and inspiring week!

May 2025 – Lucia and Yufei join the group

May brings new faces to the group: Welcome to Lucia and Yufei! Lucia, a former intern, starts her Master’s project with us working on new synthetic strategies for peptide modifications. Yufei will join Dongchen and will synthesize and study fluorogenic labels. Good luck and much success to both!

25.04.2025 –Elena climbs the Gänseliesl

With the traditional climb of the Gänseliesl Fountain, Göttingen PhD graduates (some say only now really) graduate. Today, Elena received her diploma in the official ceremony and then went to climb the fountain – all they way to the top – to hang her bouquet and memorabilia, supported by colleagues, family, and friends. Congrats, Dr. Ele! Never stop climbing high!

25.04.2025 – Rafael starts his Bachelor’s Thesis

A warm welcome to Rafael, who starts his Bachelor's Thesis today under the supervision of Radek. Rafel will work on taming high-speed photoswitches through careful synthetic modifications and run (very) deep temperature UV-Vis measurements on them.

April 2025 – Laura, Leon, Moritz, and Jakub join

April brings a wave of newbies to the group. Well, not all quite new – we welcome back our former intern Laura, our HiWi Moritz, and our Bachelor, intern, and HiWi (you gonna catch them all) Leon. All of them start their Master’s projects with us in the coming weeks. Brand new, Jakub, a former member of the Slanina lab, is joining us as an (almost) postdoc. May all your syntheses work, your columns be short and easy, and only those bonds cleave with light that you want to break!

07.04.2025 – Emily starts her internship

Welcome to Emily, who starts her internship with Arunima today! Emily will drive into the depths of photocage synthesis, before switching gears rapidly and becoming a HiWi supporting Duc in the synthesis of peptide materials.

01.04.2025 – Nadja becomes W2

From today on, Nadja can call herself Associate Professor for Molecular Labelling Chemistry and receives tenure at the University of Göttingen. This step would not have been possible without the hard and dedicated work from our previous and current students and researchers. Thank you so much for moving our program forward and making science, born on sketchy papers, become real!

20.03.2025 – Nadja speaks at the DS Closing Ceremony

Nadja was offered the honors to speak at the closing ceremony of the 2024/25 cohort of the Dorothea Schlözer postdoc program and congratulates mentee Lena and her peers on successfully finishing their training. Many congrats!!

17-19.03.2025 – Nadja speaks at the CDT2025

Nadja travels to Braunschweig to deliver a lecture at the 2025 edition of the Chemiedozententagung and catch up with colleagues and friends from all around Germany and beyond. It was great to see how all the fellow junior group leaders are progressing and research programs are developing! And, it was particularly great to see the upcoming PIs present posters on the previous research and future ideas. Looking forward to seeing what it will look like next year!

14&17.03.2025 – Esin and Tim start

We welcome Esin and Tim to our group! Esin starts her Master’s internship with Linda and will work on chromoselective peptide chemistry, while Tim begins his ‘Fachvertiefung’ and Bachelor’s Thesis on light-controlled peptides working together with Dennis for the next few months. A warm welcome to both!

10-12.03.2025 – Arunima, Radek, and Nadja at the BENCh Retreat

Arunima and Radek (and by Nadja) joined the 2025 retreat of our RTG BENCh. Both gave presentations and engaged in discussions with the interdisciplinary BENCh community. Additionally, there was some time to explore Heilbad Heiligenstadt, enjoy some evening gatherings, and sports.

03.03.2025 – Chaogang starts his internship

Today, we say hello to Chaogang, who joins us for his Master’s lab rotation. Chaogang will work with Dongchen on fluorogenic labelling reactions. Welcome, Chaogang!

February 2025 – Giulia joins the lab

We welcome Giulia from the PhotoGreenLab as a guest researcher in our group. Giulia will stay for six months with us, performing studies on light-activated labelling and bioconjugation chemistry. Welcome to the lab!

05.02.2025 – Milan & Dennis become First-Aiders

Today, Milan and Dennis received training to become official first aiders. Both passed with flying colors and the group immediately feels safer 😊

February/March 2025 – Radek travels to Sweden

Radek travels North to stay for two weeks in the Crespi group as his external BENCh stay to learn DFT calculations of photochemical switches. Besides enjoying the flexibility of building molecules from exotic atoms, he enjoyed the local fitness and international evening culture.

21.02.2025 – Elena becomes a PhD

With a beautiful lecture and a diverse, interdisciplinary discussion, Elena defends her PhD with honors! We had a small celebration together with family and friends to cheer to Dr. Ele! Congratulations on this achievement! We are very proud of you!

01&02.02.2025 – Nadja travels to Sendai

Nadja travels around the globe to speak at the First Symposium for Materials of the Future in Sendai, Japan. The meeting was absolutely outstanding and extraordinarily well-organized. It was fantastic to network with the Japanese community and initiate talks for future collaborations. Thank you, Ryojun, for your hospitality!

17.01.2025 – Elisa’s Abholung

….Next did not take very long – only 7 days after her defense (and a tight race with bureaucracy), Elisa is officially awarded her PhD diploma and climbs the Gänseliesl Fountain following a century-old tradition of freshly graduated Göttingen Doctors. Congrats, Eli!

10.01.2025 – Elisa defends her Thesis

Elisa successfully defends her thesis and brightens up this gloomy Friday. We close the week with cheering to Dr. Eli with family, friends, and collaborators and looking forward to seeing what’s next….

January 2025 – Elena submits a preprint and her PhD Thesis

The year gains momentum quickly as Elena submits her (really heavy!) PhD thesis and at the same time, we upload a first author paper as preprint. Please read her work on light-controlling peptide aggregation *here*. With that, she reaches not one, but two milestones and now prepares to defend her work in a few weeks. We are looking forward to the big day!

January 2025 – Nadja selected as Member of the ECR Advisory Board of Chem Eur J

Nadja was selected as a member of the Early Career Advisory Board of Chemistry – A European Journal. Thank you for this honor! Looking forward to getting to know and working with everyone!

07.01.2025 – Fynn starts his stay with us

We welcome Fynn to our group, who will stay with us for his ‘Fachvertiefung’ and Bachelor’s Thesis. As a trained biochemist, he will support Duc in developing biocompatible adhesives. Good luck, Fynn!

24.12.2025 – 01.01.2025 – Holiday Break & a New Year for Science

The fumehoods are cleaned and closed, the rotorvaps stand still, the dark room is darker than usual, and even the LCMS went to sleep – clear signs that the Christmas break has started, and the University closed its doors. Most of our lab members are already off either to visit family or bake cookies (or both) or to get a well-deserved break during the calmest time of the year. We now take a few days to recharge our batteries and start into 2025 with new zeal and vigor! Happy New Year!

11.12.2024 – Inventory, Team Meeting, and Punchparty

This day is feared by many: the inventory! To sweeten it up a bit, we scheduled it on the same day as the student union’s punch party is taking place, so that the cleaning and organizing of the morning can be washed down with hot Glühwein in the evening. In-between, we came together with some beers for our last team meeting of the year.

10.12.2024 – Radek visits the Bredenbeck Lab

Radek packed up three of his photoswitches and travelled to Frankfurt to visit the Bredenbeck lab at Goethe University to perform some experiments on the molecules, which were (spoiler alert) quite cool! We are looking forward to this collaboration and what comes from it 😊

06.12.2024 – Christmas Party of the Lab

On time for St. Nikolaus’ Day or Sinterklaas (yeah! Kruidnoten!), we came together with the Walker Group, our formed students, and team members to celebrate our Christmas Party. With international dishes from everyone, Glühwein, Feuerzangenbowle, and beers, we spent a tasty evening, that peaked in the “Best Costume Contest” and the “White Elephant” game, in which the attendees could collect as many second, third, or maybe forth-hand presents as possible in a competitive manner! Congrats to Radek, who was crowned for best costume, and thanks to Linda and Arunima for organizing and Elisa and Brian for chairing the night!

03.12.2024 – Christmas Market Visit

The team dressed up warmly after work to visit together the Christmas Market in the city center of Göttingen. Glühwein and snacks kept the team warm and only orientation within the crowd seemed to be a minor challenge that had to be overcome to have a good time together.

December 2024 - Elisa submits her Thesis

The moment came – After years of experiments, long hours titrating enzyme substrates, an all-nighter at DESY, countless tea-breaks, but also many laughs, happy incidents, and a few trip to attend conferences - Elisa closed the almost last chapter of her PhD journey and submitted her thesis.

22.11.2024 – GGNB Science Day

Milan and Nadja biked step uphill to join the GGNB science day at the MPI on the Fassberg. Milan presented the group’s research on a poster and Nadja used the opportunity to catch up on some collaborative projects with other GGNB PIs and students. A nice day for science – and a great bike ride home downhill.

14-16.11.2024 – Bayer visit in Monheim

Nils, Dennis, Linda, Elisa, and Dongchen went to visit the chemical company Bayer in Monheim! The trip was organized by the Alcarazo group and allowed our team members to get a glimpse of how research looks in the laboratories of such a large company. The students were particularly amazed by the scale of some of the processes, the synthetic equipment, and the organization of the fumehoods. Thanks a lot for the organization!

07.11.2024 – Graduation Ceremony

The Graduation Ceremony 2024 took place in the Aula of the Georga Augusta and our dean awarded together with the head of the study commission and the dean of studies, the diplomas to the recent Bachelor and Master graduates of the department. Also, Pilar and Robert, former members of our group, received their Master’s diploma’s today. Congratulations!

05.11.2024 – Arunima starts her PhD studies

Today, we welcome our newest PhD student, Arunima Rajesh! Arunima is a recent Master’s graduate from the Venkataramani lab from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Mohali, India. She will join our group in the framework of the RTG BENCh to BENChmark light-responsive protecting groups to tailor them for different applications. All the best for your research endeavors!

04.11.2024 – Leon and Antony start their internships

A warm welcome (back) to Leon and Antonios, who will join our group for their lab rotations. Leon was already with us for his Bachelor’s project, where he worked on fluorophores, and now came back to work with Dennis on peptide synthesis. Antonios will work with Duc on light-responsive cross-linkers and their incorporation into amino acids before he will move on to do a Master’s Thesis with our friends at the Walker group, where he will likely focus more on using light to make instead of break stuff... Have a good start to both!

28.10.24 – Laura starts

In the last days of October, we welcomed Laura to our team! Laura will work with Milan on the light-controlled functionalization of amino acids and the quantification of the process via HPLC-MS and NMR. Good luck with your project!

17.10.2024 – Jean starts his internship

A warm welcome to Jean, who starts today his internship with us! He will support Radek in his quest to BENChmark photoswitches by preparing a small sit of diverly functionalized compounds. Much success, Jean!

14-18.10.2024 – Mariangela Di Donato visits us as Mercator Fellow

This week, Mariangela Di Donato from LENS (Florence, IT) visits us a BENCh Mercator Fellow. She will stay the whole week to extensively discuss with faculty and students. Moreover, she gave a lecture on Tuesday and a student-focused workshop on spectroscopy on Thursday. Thanks a lot for your visit!

30.09.2024 – Yann visits us

Yann Jézéquel from the Klan lab in Brno (CZ) visits us for one months for a PhD exchange. Yann brings a lot of knowledge in photolabile groups and not less sweets from his home country. He will work with Linda and Milan on pH-modulating dyes. Welcome, Yann, we’re happy to have you!

30.09.2024 – Frida submits her Thesis

It’s a wrap! Frida concludes her work with us and submits her Master’s thesis on light-controlled reversible bond formation in biomolecules. With great support from Milan, she explored a complex project challenging the limits of our analytical devices. Thank you, Frida, for rejoining the group! It’s a pity that you left us, but a win for all the pupils who will learn from you in the future!

17-19.09.2024 – Radek joins BENCh to meet the 123H-RTG

Radek travels to Erfurt to attend a joined workshop of our RTG BENCh and the 123H RTG from Leipzig. He gave a great presentation on his work on photochemical switches highlighting the effect of H-isotopes in tautomerization-based mechanisms.

09-13.09.2024 – ORCHEM Regensburg and Retreat

The team travelled to Regensburg to attend the ORCHEM 2024 meeting of the GDCh and extended the stay by one day for an internal retreat. Everyone (besides Nadja) presented posters, the ones of Elena and Pia even got awarded prizes, and Pia gave a oral flash presentation about her poster and Master’s Thesis on the main stage!

02-04.09.2024 – Milan is at the CRC1286 Retreat

Continuing to the scientific exchange with a high interdisciplinary and collaborative aspect, Milan travelled to Braunlage to join the retreat of the CRC1286. He presented a poster summarizing the latest research of our group and exchanged ideas with peers and PIs from the CRC.

01-04.09.2024 – Nadja attends the MACH5 Meeting

Nadja attended the 2nd “Molecular Machinery: Modelling, Making, Measuring” (MACH5) Meeting taking place close to Bologna, in Bertinoro, Italy. She used to (re)connect with young and established molecular machinists and chaired the final session of the conference. Thanks a lot to Alberto and his team for the great organization!

29-30.08.2024 – Milan is at the GGNB Retreat

Milan joined the retreat of the Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB). He gave a presentation and discussed his research with peers from the graduate school.

26.08.2024 – Lucia starts her internship

Today, Lucia starts her Master’s internship with us working together with Dennis on peptide-based substate analogues in a collaborative project with the Tittmann group. She will particularly focus on the importance of stereochemical aspects. Welcome Lucia!

21-23.08.2024 – Nadja at the 31st BioOrg Conference

Nadja travelled to Dortmund to attend the 31st Bioorganic Conference for young PIs. She shared the latest research of the group, mainly focusing on non-published work, and connected with peers. Many thanks to Sidney, Anzhela, Malte, Peter, Johannes, Elisabeth, and Mario for organizing! Looking forward to the Berlin edition next year!

21-23.08.2024 – Elena travels to Basel

Elena travels a couple of hours souths by train and despite Bahn-induced detours, she managed to reach her destination – to attend the Peptide Therapeutics Forum 2024 in Basel, Switzerland. She presented her latest research on a poster and connected with peptide chemists from academia and industry.

15.08.2024 – Duc starts

A warm welcome to Duc, who joins us today as a postdoctoral researcher! Duc did his PhD in the groups of Diederichsen and Walker and will join us for a DFG-funded project on light-responsive peptides for clinical applications. Much success with your research, Duc!

14.08.2024 – Treasure Hunt and BBQ

The hunt stays hot! Also this year, we managed to pick one of the hottest days of summer (despite selecting the date very early!) for our treasure hunt. To give everyone a feeling of having a “home game”, this year’s edition was taking place at the North Campus! But was it indeed an easy one? Probably not in all aspects, but it was definitely an extremely tight race! This was likely due to the careful assembly of teams, each consisting of contestants from the Walker and our group (including some alumni!) based on their answers in an extensive questionnaire. The teams then had to solve challenging tasks and riddles, fight crime and space groups, and find their way back home before the other teams. We can proudly report that everyone arrived safely and we concluded the day with a BBQ. Thanks to everyone for your engagement and special thanks to Prof. Dr. Obenchain for hosting the structure-stop!

12.08.2024 – Finnja submits her Bachelor’s Thesis

Over the past three months, Finnja had joined Dongchen and performed her Bachelor's Thesis work on the synthesis of multi-functional labelling reagents. She did an excellent job resisting all obstacles put in her way by unexpectedly incompatible functional groups and provided us with a thesis just before the summer break. We wish Finnja all the best continuing her studies to become a teacher!

08.08.2024 – X-Lab Summer Workshop

Three times make it a tradition! Also, this summer, we hosted an international high school student group, that was doing a summer course at the X-Lab, for one day in our lab to do some experiments together. This year, Elena and Nils showed the students chemical transformations hands-on and explained how we do research – and even gave them some sneak peaks into our latest unpublished work. Thank you for your engagement and the visit! We are looking forward to next year!

August 2024 – Ole and Moritz start as HiWis

To not spend too much of their free time in the fresh air, Ole and Moritz accepted positions as student assistants in our group. They will support the team both in the lab and for undergraduate teaching. Welcome back to both!

31.07.-01.08.2024 – 48h of Submissions!

What. A. (two) Day(s)! The past two days were characterized by deadlines and we proudly managed to hit all of them. First Robert, and one day later, Shangshu submitted their Master’s theses. Just with a few hours behind, Dongchen, with support from Milan, Linda, Elena, Dennis, and our collaborators Laszlo and Felipe, submitted the first paper of his PhD work! Congratulations to everyone!

28.07.2024 – We are hiring!

We currently have an opening for a PhD student to work on (opto)bioorganic chemistry! Please apply here!

26.07.2024 – Shangshu visits the Gottschalk Lab in Frankfurt

Over the past months, Shangshu was working tirelessly to synthesize and investigate photoswitchable bioactive molecules – and today, he took a train to Frankfurt am Main to visit Christiane from the Gottschalk lab to learn about their studies and how his molecules are tested in vivo. Stay tuned for more 😊

July 2024 – Merle becomes a Bachelor of Science!

After an internship and her thesis work at the interphase of chemistry and biology, that Merle conduced with us and the Tittmann lab, she successfully submitted her thesis and became a Bachelor of Science! Congratulations, Merle!

12.07.2024 – Nadja gives a lecture in Marburg

On early Friday, Nadja made her way to the beautiful city of Marburg to deliver a talk at the department for Pharmacy focusing on the team’s latest contributions on imaging and optochemical manipulations. More to come out very soon!

11.07.2024 – Radek hosts Mogens Brønsted Nielsen

Radek hosted today Prof. Mogens Brønsted Nielsen as a BENCh guest. The stay was fully student-organized, hosted, and focused and Radek did a fantastic job both in preparation and during the day – despite disappearing busses, he managed to professionally put together a great program and shined as first-time chairman.

29.06.2024 – Chemistry Football Tournament

Many group members joined together with colleagues from the Ackermann labs and friends to compete in the department’s football tournament. On an incredibly hot day and two teams, we showed our skills outside the lab and worked on our team skills in a new setting. The fun team won regarding the fun and the competitive team almost won the competition. We are happy that everyone could enjoy themselves and we could conclude the day without injuries and many good moments.

25.06.2024 – Nadja speaks in Bayreuth

Today, Nadja travels to Bayreuth to visit the Chemistry department and give a lecture and engage in scientific discussions and the question to which extent Franconia is part of Bavaria. A lovely day with good weather, pity that the Campus’ volleyball fields were already disassembled.

20.06.2024 – Ben Feringa in Göttingen

Nadja hosts her postdoctoral advisor Prof. Ben Feringa (University of Groningen) together with Oliver as local organizer of the GDCh colloquium in Göttingen. Ben was visiting the department and gave an outreach lecture in the evening filling our largest lecture hall with great ease. Thanks for the visit, Ben!

16–19.06.2024 – Photocage Conference in Prague

Nadja travels to Prague to attend the Conference on Caged Compounds to deliver a lecture. Thanks, Tomas, for the invitation to meet the authors of our standard reading list live! Many great interactions and many first-time meetings!

12.06.2024 – Göttingen Forum for Chemistry

This year at the JCF Forum Göttingen we are represented with large numbers: Nils, Elisa, Elena, and Radek are presenting posters and Elena gives a talk! They got frequently visitors and were involved in many scientific discussions sharing our (mostly unpublished) research to the local community.

June 2024 – Verena starts as intern

Verena joins us for an internship. She will work together with Radek on his BENChmarking project on photoswitches working with azopyrazoles and explores opportunities to redshift the absorption spectra of photoactuators.

11.06.2024 – Nadja gives a lecture in Bochum

Nadja travels to Bochum to visit the RESOLV Cluster of Excellence. She discussed with local members and gave a scientific lecture on the latest research developments of the group. Thanks, Sebastian, for the kind invitation and the hospitality.

16.05.2014 – Day of Light: Nadja speaks at the ESP Junior Meeting

The European Society of Photobiology organized an online event for (under) graduate students across the world. As Young Investigator Awardee, Nadja was invited to deliver a lecture and share her insights on becoming a junior group leader with the audience. Thanks for the invitation and this opportunity, see you all next year in Bari!

13-15.05.2014 – Elisa, Elena, and Milan organize Pint of Science Göttingen

Elisa, Elena, and Milan, together with further team members in Göttingen spent the last couple of months to prepare for Pint of Science Göttingen 2024. They managed to put together an impressive program putting together the second largest event in Germany (while being by far not the second largest city!). For three evenings, they hosted events in up to four pubs featuring around 20 speakers from different disciplines – including Linda, Dan, Ricardo, and Nadja from Chemistry, and Sabina and Tori from the MBExC. Thanks a lot for the great organization, the presents and all the fun!

May 2024 – Nadine and Finnja start and Ole rejoins as HiWi!

We welcome three new group members for their projects in May! Nadine will do her Bachelor’s thesis with Nils working on light-responsive lipids and Finnja will support Dongchen on the development of new protein labels for imaging. Ole is coming back to us to support us in the next couple of months as a research assistant! Good start, much success, luck, and joy to everyone!

19.04.2024 – Career Event and Angrillen

Today, we had a visitor working in industry and telling the group about a potential “life after PhD”. We combine this Friday afternoon talk with beers and the first BBQ of the season – as tradition wills, it was similarly terrible weather as last year, definitely calling for a second attempt.

April 2024 – The Team grows!

April starts with a Bang! Dennis rejoins us as PhD student, and Pia and Frida come back to perform their Master’s thesis with us, while Laura starts her Bachelor’s project and Jannis his research internship. A cake flood is likely to follow making the start of the semester a sweet one from several aspects! Welcome everyone!

March 2024 – Easter Break

Just before the summer semester starts, the long Easter weekend gives most group members the opportunity to take a short break and relax a bit. Happy Holidays :D

March 18th – Nadja speaks at the IPS-Seminar

Nadja was invited to speak at the monthly seminar of the Italian peptide society (IPS) and introduce some photochemically regulated peptides and imaging techniques to the audience to stir up interesting discussions.

March 13-15th – Elena and Nadja join the LEMS Meeting in Heidelberg

Next stop: Heidelberg! The Life-inspired Molecular Systems Conference at Heidelberg University brought together scientists from diverse backgrounds – two of them were Elena and Nadja, who had lots of fun to get to know everyone at the meetings and chat about bioorganic chemistry and biology. Besides that, Nadja gave a keynote lecture and there was even some time to explore Heidelberg city (photo credit: ERC).

March 11-13th – Chemiedozententagung in Aachen

Nadja’s roadtrip continues – this time with DB to Aachen! She spoke for the first time at the yearly Chemiedozententagung of the GDCh and introduced our young team to peers and senior colleagues. Lots of good discussions around science, some potential overlap for collaboration, and a great possibility to meet and great old friends.

March 2024 – Ole joins as Intern

Ole starts his internship with Milan and will collaborate with us on the synthesis and isolation of visible-light responsive photolabile protecting groups. Welcome Ole!

March 04-06th – Radek and Nadja at the BENCh Retreat in Heilbad Heiligenstadt

Radek and Nadja travelled to Heilbad Heiligenstadt to join the 2024 Retreat of our RTG BENCh, where Radek gave his introductory presentation to the RTG, which was well received. Following this, he might have initiated a whole bunch of collaborations, which we are very happy about and will follow up on in the next months 😊

February 29th - Dennis submits!!

Dennis submits his successful Master's Thesis and rightfully claims his title as Master Nr 5 from our lab! If you want to see more of Dennis, don't worry, he will soon be back as PhD student to follow up on the previous project and do a lot of cool new work on light-regulated pepetides.

February 29-March 03rd – NOST-OCC 2024 in Bhubaneswar

Nadja travels to India as an invited speaker at the 2024 edition of the National Organic Symposium Trust meeting in Bhubaneswar. What a great pleasure to get to know so many new people and to meet friends from PhD times after all these years, while listening to great science and enjoying cultural highlights. Thanks for this fantastic time, the hospitality, and great organization!

February 2024 – Advika starts her internship

We welcome Advika to the lab, who will do her Master’s internship with us. She will work together with Milan and dive into the synthesis of water-soluble photocages. All the best for your start!

February 13-16th – HSC and MBExC Retreat 2024!

It’s been some time – but we came back to Volpriehausen for the annual retreat of the MBExC. Elena already went on Tuesday to join the Hertha Sponer Retreat that she also co-organized, and welcomed Linda, Dongchen, Nils, and Nadja on Wednesday. Elena gave a talk and showed together with her colleagues two posters on the method portfolio of the group, while Nadja contributed as round table discussion leader. We got a good impression on the current status of everyone’s research and found a few starting points for new collaborative research.

February 13th – Highschool Students visit us

Today, we were visited by a final year high school class from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which majors in chemistry. Our (former) students Marga, Jannis, and Dennis took one hour of their time to answer questions around chemistry studies in Göttingen and shared their personal views on deciding what to do after school. Afterward, Dennis and Nadja, together with Max and Marius from the Walker Lab, and Angela and Tabea from the Steinem Group, organized lab tours in small group to show the students the research of the institute.

January 30th – Our project Niedersachen BEREIT gets funded

We are a second time in a few months supported by the Volkswagen Stiftung under “Niedersachsen BEREIT” and received funding to prepare for an ERC grant submission later this year. Thanks for the trust and encouragement, we will make the best out of it!

January 30th – Nadja recieves the ChemBioChemistry Prize

Nadja wins the very first Early Career ChemBioChemistry Award, which was joint awarded by the “Chemistry of Life Sciences” division of EuChemS and Chemistry Europe. The award comes together with a lecture in 2025 in Paris and text messages from group members demanding cake 😊

Jan 24-26th – ChemBio Conference in Paris

Despite strike of the German Railway Company, Milan, Elena, and Nadja made their way to Paris (with some adventures detours to make it a better story). All three shared their research at the ChemBio2024 meeting with posters and enjoyed the international panel of speakers reporting on the latest developments in the field. They even had a bit of time after the meeting for a quick Paris-in-one-day trip.

January – Nadja is a Thieme Journal Awardee 2024

Nadja was selected as one of the Thieme Journal Awardees 2024! Thanks for this recognition and support!

Jan 8th – Thomas starts!

And it’s just week 2, but we already have a new intern starting with us! Thomas will support Nils on his lipid project for the next couple of weeks! Much success and fun!

January 2024

And just like this - in a blink- it’s 2024! We are looking forward to a new year full of chemical adventures and new discoveries! So, maybe, it’s a good moment to look a bit ahead: we are currently wrapping up a couple of projects and are confident that we can submit a few papers this year and share a bit more what’s going on in our fume hoods 😊 Some people will wrap up enough projects to submit their theses, which means that we can look forward to having the first PhDs finishing – someone needs to start pumping the tires of the wagon, so that we can bring our graduates to climb the Gänseliesel! Also, Nadja will have the interim evaluation of her W1 phase (uff, that was quick!) and we’re already planning some conference visits and our 2024 retreat. Stay tuned!

December 2023 – Wrap up!

Aaaand, that’s it! Fume hoods are cleaned and closed, lab books stored away, and just like this, 2023 already passed – what a year! It’s only the second full year of the group operating, but it starts feeling like we have always done this. Projects were moved forward enthusiastically, and we hope to share more of them in 2024. We hosted many students for the projects and were happy to see several of them back with us to do their theses. Also, the team is evolving as such, which become evident by the number of cool experiments that are done in absence of the PI, who is very proud to see this growth. Curious and highly motivated to see where we take it from here – and boldly go where no one has gone before!

17.12.2023 – Elena won a travelling fellowship of the DS Programme

Elena could secure travel fellowships from the Dorothea Schlözer-Programme to attend the ChemBio2024 Symposium in Paris, France, in January. Congratulations!

December 2023 – Goodbye to Amrita

After one year and four months of exciting research, we say goodbye to Amrita. She was a postdoctoral researcher with us and worked on more than four different projects around photocage design, targeted cargo-release, and chromoselective transformations. With the end of her stay in the lab, we also start to assemble her stories into manuscripts, that we can hopefully share in 2024. Thanks, Armita, for your hard work and great contributions to our lab! We are looking forward to hearing from you next scientific adventures :D

14.12.2023 – Lab Cleaning and Christmas Party

Today started with a group meeting and was followed by an extensive end-of-the year lab cleaning and an inventory of our chemical registrar (Here, everyone was happy to be a member of a small lab with a limited number of bottles 😉). Afterwards, we started preparing food, cookies, and cakes for our Christmas Party the evening that we celebrated together with the Walker Lab and the Diederichsen Group, students, and friends.

13.12.2023 – Our Cooperation Project Lower Saxony – Israel got funded!

Good news for the lab! The MWK Lower Saxony supports our collaborative initiative and funds us! More to come soon :)

12.12.2023 – Lecture in Tübingen

The travelling year was not yet closed for Nadja as she accepted an invitation to present the group’s research in Tübingen. A beautiful town full of beautiful science and a great pleasure to discuss research endeavors with members of the department. Thanks a lot for having me!

21.11.2023 – Lecture in Linz

Nadja was invited by collaborator Prof. Peter Pohl to give a lecture in Linz. She presented the latest scientific adventures of the group and elaborated on our future plans based on which fruitful discussions regarding the shared projects and ideas for one or two new ones could be drafted! More hopefully soon 😊

13.11.2023 – Radek starts his PhD & Ahmed and Jule start their internships

Today was a busy and exiting day for us as we dit not welcome one but THREE new members to the group! We say hi to Radek, who will start his PhD with us in the framework of BENCh and work on theory & experiment of photoswitches. Ahmed will start his Master’s internship and support Milan on a project on light-activated labelling chemistry, while Jule will team up with Elena for her Bachelor’s internship and thesis oh light-controlled bioorganic supramolecular assemblies.

02.11.2023 ¬ Graduation Ceremony 2023 – Our Undergraduates Graduate

Jannis, Leon, and Milan officially graduated! Well, they graduated already before but today, the Graduation Ceremony 2023 for all our Bachelor’s and Master’s took place and they got their diplomas handed over by the Dean, the Dean of Study, and the Head of the Examination Committee. We were happy to celebrate with them, their friends and families and are proud of having had them (or still having them) in our lab.

November 2023 – Shangshu starts his Master’s Thesis and Laura her Bachelor’s project

Shangshu rejoins the team as a Master’s student. He will synthesize and study small molecules, which biological activity can be tuned by irradiation with light. Laura will work with Linda on chromoselective synthesis first in an internship and then for her Bachelor’s project. Good luck, Laura and Shangshu!

22-23.10.2023 ¬ Retreat and ENLIGHT Workshop in Groningen

The group took a train to Groningen to have our yearly internal retreat there. We discussed different aspects on where the group will go in the next years. The second day, we met up with the Feringa and Crespi Group for a one-day ENLIGHT workshop on Light-Control in different scenarios. Dongchen and Elena gave flash presentations and both of them as well as Ilze, Nils, Elisa, and Linda showed posters and Nadja gave a lecture. Besides the scientific program, there was plenty of time for mingling and networking and exploring the city of Groningen.

11-13.10.2023 – Nadja speaks at the Indo-German Workshop 2023

Nadja travelled again to Bavaria, this time to Würzburg, to attend the 2023 Indo-German workshop. She gave a presentation and had the fantastic opportunity to meet old friends (from PhD times!) and to network in this fabulous setting, that kick started new upcoming collaboration. Thanks to Jürgen and Bernd for organizing and Alex for the support!

October 2023 – Hsin and Andreas start their interships

A warm welcome to Hsin and Andreas, who join the group for their lab rotations! Hsin will work with Linda and synthesize photo-sensitive amino acids to study rate-selective release in in operando techniques. Andreas will develop multi-functional labelling agents for high-resolution microscopy together with Dongchen. Good luck to both!

01.10.2023 – Nadja becomes Vertrauensdozentin of the Studienstiftung

Nadja became Vertrauensdozentin (Liaison) for the German Scholarship Foundation. Thank you very much for this honor!

01.10.2023 – Milan starts as a PhD student!

We proudly welcome back Milan, who rejoins us as a PhD student. Great to have you with us and much success and joy during your upcoming adventures in (bio)organic photochemistry, tracer development, and redox regulation!

27.09.2023 – Water-Soluble Photoswitches – A Top Cited Article!

Wohooo, our review on water-soluble photoswitches was a top cited article: “The number of citations you received places your work in our top 5% of highly cited articles from the Royal Society of Chemistry.” Thanks everyone for your feedback 😊

25.09.2023 - Robert starts his Master's project

We welcome Robert back! After a few months of summer break and finishing up lectures and exams, he joins our lab for “the last act” of his Master’s studies. He will start a project on light-responsive building block for automated SPPS and try to push the boundaries of the field. All the best, Robert!

25.09.2023 – Elena starts in Heidelberg

Today, Elena had her first day in the Thomas Lab in Heidelberg! She will spend a few weeks there to work on a collaborative project and enjoy a beautiful city. Good luck, Ele!

September 2023 – Milan submits!

Done! Milan hands in his Master’s thesis and becomes the third Master’s student graduating from our group. He extremely successfully design, synthesized, and studied light-responsive tools from the NMR tube via the cuvette to the inside of cells! The diversity of techniques used in his work was only matched by the variety of colours his compounds had 😉 Congrats, Milan! See you soon!

20.09.2023 – Nadja speaks at the GZMB Summer Fest 2023

At the annual Summer Fest of the Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB), Nadja got the chance to give a presentation and introduce the group’s research to the center. The group enjoyed a series of interesting lectures across the disciplines and got new inspiration for our ongoing projects.

13-15.10.2023 – Nadja joins the Bioorganic Conference for Young PIs in Munich

Nadja travelled to Munich to attend the 30th edition of the (Bio)organic Conference in Munich. Great place to connect with the junior group leader community in and around Germany and foster new collaborations. Many thanks to the organizers for their fantastic job and their invitation as well as the FCI for sponsorship.

September 2023 – Summer Workshops

To not get rusty over the more relaxed summer break, we had two internal workshops on Reading&Writing and Presentations to improve our skills outside the lab. Both workshops were highly interactive, and we will build on what we learned during the next semester.

11.09.2023 – Betriebsausflug! Group Outing 2023

Together with the Diederichsen Group and the Walker Lab, we organized a team day. We quickly formed the “Ruby Red Reve(a)lers” (We reveal everything), the “Massive Blackhole Output” (Productive like the output of a blackhole), “the Underdogs” (the underdogs always win!), “the green dream team” (Chasing Greenery, Not Chemistry!), the “Old and Wise” (an ELEphant never forgets), and the “Azure Alliance” (Now blue and later too!) and went downtown on a treasure hunt. Despite tough riddles to crack and an even tougher heat to survive, we had a fun afternoon that ended in our first international evening.

September 2023 –Thanh Tan starts his internship

We welcome Thanh Tan to the group, who is starting is internship with Linda. He is going to establish an analytic platform to quantify photochemical transformations by HPLC-MS analysis.

28.-30.08.2023 – Ilze and Elena travel to Jena to Join the German Peptide Symposium

Ilze and Elena packed their posters and travelled to Jena to join the German Peptide Symposium. The presented their work and brought a huge amount of new ideas for their projects back to Göttingen!

27-31.08-2023 – Nadja and Linda attend the Photobiology Symposium in Lyon

Linda and Nadja travelled to the beautiful city of Lyon to attend the Symposium of the European Society for Photobiology. Nadja gave a talk and received the Young Investigator award and Linda showed a poster and gave an oral presentation. We used the time to network with the community and share our ideas on future directions of the field. See you in two years!

August 2023 – Nils' article is published in Nachrichten aus der Chemie

Nils wrote our second highlight article for "Synthese in Blickpunkt" in the journal of the German Chemist's Association. He summarized the latest developments on the enantioselective synthesis of helicenes. Congratulations on this nice work!

18.08.2023 – Summer BBQ with the Alcarazos & Walkers

Once again we celebrate the end of the summer semester together with the Alcarazo Group and the Walker Lab. Manuel prepared a gigantic paella to share and we spent a nice evening at the OC cafete. We used beers and wine to cheer to recent papers and cake to round of the evening.

10.08.2023 – Outreach: X-Lab students visit our lab!

The age-average of our lab members significantly decreased for one morning! We had (for the second time) the pleasure to host high school students from all over the globe attending the XLab summer camp in our labs! Nadja, Dongchen, and Ilze showed them all the steps from synthesizing dyes, to fluorescence labeling and FRET measurements including experiments that they could do themselves. Everyone involved enjoyed the morning and we are looking forward to hosting the next round in one year :D

August 2023 – The summer brings new students to the lab!

We welcome three new students to the group! Pia returns as a JuniorBENCher (see here for more info) to make a library of phenylazopyrazole photoswitches that will help us to kick off our BENCh projects comparing experiment and theory. Also, Klaas joins us as HiWi. He will support our peptide team and work on the synthesis of unnaturally modified peptides. Shangshu join us for his lab rotation and will make new labels for high-resolution fluorescence microscopy together with Dongchen. Welcome all and best of luck in your projects!

25.07.2023 – Nadja receives the ESP Young Investigator Award

Nadja was selected as one of the two awardees for the Young Investigator Award of the European Society of Photobiology! Both awardees are invited to present their research in Lyon in late August. Thanks a lot for this recognition of our lab’s work!

22.07.2023 – Football Tournament of the Chemistry Department

We teamed up with the Walker Lab and joined the Chemistry Football Tournament 2023 organized by the Fachschaft Chemie. As “the fluorescent and the furious” we died some T-Shirts to match our research interests and met up to see if our skills with the ball were matching with those handling round bottom flasks. While a detailed analysis is still pending, we can already conclude that some scenes on the field were definetly more spectacular than an average lab day 😉 We had lots of fun that day in and outside the field and now go back to enjoy the rest of summer in the lab or at a sunny holiday spot.

11.07.2023 – Nadja speaks at the SystemsChemistry Online Symposium

Nadja was invited to deliver a flash presentation at the Systems Chemistry 23 Online Symposium and discussed the group’s most recent research and future directions the lab will undertake to move from the single molecule level towards building light-controlled systems bottom up. Thanks a lot for the invitation!

11.07.2023 – We are now Member of the GZMB!

From today on, our lab is a junior research group as member of the Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB). We are looking forward to work together in this network and intensify our interactions crossing the borders of disciplines!

27-30.06.2023 – Tetrahedron Symposium Gothenburg, Sweden

Nils, Elisa, Elena, Ilze, and Nadja traveled to Gothenburg, Sweden, to attend the 2023 Tetrahedran Symposium! Our PhD students presented posters on their current projects receiving a lot of attention and got new ideas and Nadja showed some photoclick chemistry from her postdoc work. Besides science, we also found some time to explore Gothenburg and its surroundings by foot and boat always looking out for sudden rain. With a bunch of happy memories, we all made it back safe to Göttingen und trying to realize our ideas in the lab.

17.06.2023 – Group Outing to the Unicorn Cave

Last year, we went to the Broken – as high as you can go in the Harz – this year, we tried to go down and visited the “unicorn cave”. While “going down” did not fully work out as the cave is actually on a hill in the forest, we at least got to know the unicorn that led to the name of the cave as well as all its famous visitors – now also proudly listing the NASC lab 😊 On the way back, we also found a nice castle where we used all of our combined skill to make this artistic picture.

14.06.2023 – Summer Party of the Fachschaft

You might not believe it as, again, there are no pictures from this event – but today we finished work a bit earlier and went to join the rest of the department at the summer party of Chemistry organized by the Fachschaft 😊 It was great fun and we try to provide some evidence next year!

05.06.2023 – Jennifer starts!

Today, we welcome Jennifer, who starts her Master’s internship with Amrita. They will work on preparing a series of chromatically orthogonal photocages to explore their properties in various experimental settings. Welcome, Jennifer, good luck and a lot of fun in the next few weeks!

26.05.2023 – Introductory Talk for Biochemistry Students

Nadja gave a short lecture for biochemistry bachelor students to introduce the group’s research and present open topics for research stays (Fachvertiefung) or Bachelor’s projects. Interested students are encouraged to reach out via email (nadja.simeth@uni-goettingen.de & our team members) or swing by our labs for an informal chat!

22.05.2023 – Ilze’s paper got accepted!

Even more good news! Ilze’s paper got accepted in ChemBioChem. The work is her first first-author scientific paper of her PhD and the second experimental paper of the group! Ilze presents how photolabile staples can influence both the secondary structure of peptides and their supramolecular self-assembly. We combined our experimental results with MD simulations in a team effort with Sophia and Jon from the Mata lab. Congrats to all, well done!

20-23.03.2023 – Elena, Elisa, and Ilze at Pint of Science in Göttingen

Finally, after one year of waiting, Pint of Science is back in Göttingen – and with what a program! 22 speakers, 4 bars, 3 days – and several of our lab members were involved in making this possible. Elena and Elisa steered the organization in the last few months and Ilze joined the support staff for all three evenings. Also, Elena gave an experimental presentation on the “Science of Soap Bubbles” on the closing evening of the event!

20.05.2023 – Ilze and Elisa received Travel Fellowships

Monday morning came with good news – both Ilze and Elisa were able to secure travel fellowships from the Dorothea Schlözer-Programme to attend the Tetrahedron Symposium in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June. Congratulations to both!

15.05.2023 – Amelie starts her internship!

Today, Amelie starts her intership with us! She will work together with Elisa on the synthesis of oligo-nucleotide analogous and hopefully will also do the first structural studies of our new molecules! Welcome and a lot of success!

12-13.05.2023 – EuChems YIW on Life Sciences in Helsinki

Just back in Göttingen and gone again – Nadja flew out to Helsinki to give a lecture at the EuChems Young Investigator Workshop of the Life Science division, she was selected for as one of two representatives from Germany. Finland greeted the attendees with beautiful weather and the European spirit was strong among the international attendees. What a great experience and encouragement to do science with the next generation of European Young Chemists. Many thanks to Olalla Vazquez for the nomination and GDCh for the support!

09.05.2023 – Lecture in Frankfurt

Nadja recieved her first external seminar invitation in Germany and travels to Frankfurt am Main to visit Alex Heckel and colleagues at the Goethe University! She was meeting up with renewed collaborators (Sebastian did his postdoc on the same floor in Groningen, which gave a paper), got to meet some people from the field finally in person, and gave a talk on the group’s latest research. Thanks for the hospitality!

08.05.2023 – BENCh gets funded!

It is official! BENCh got funded – and so got we! The DFG confirmed that the success story of RTG2455 “Benchmark Experiments for Numerical Quantum Chemistry” (BENCh) will continue in a second funding period – and we are going to be part of it! Stay tuned for more information!

05.05.2023 – Eli & Ele make it into the Newspaper!

Today we could find our two most cherished Italians reading the Göttinger Tagblatt – with good reason! Both are part of the Pint-of-Science Göttingen Organization team and the event that will take place in a few days was featured in the local newspaper including interviews with the team members. Congratulations! This is definitely worth paper cake 😊
If you want to learn more about PoS Göttingen or join the support crew visit their website or contact our team members!

03.05.2023 - Workshop at Wiley

Together with our friends from the Walker Lab, the Bismuto Lab, and the Alcarazo Lab,the group was invited to Weinheim to visit the Wiley-VCH head quarters for a workshop. We got to know a lot about academic publishing, paper writing, and literature search and got to look into the editor's black box. Thanks a lot for the invitation! It was an absolute pleasure!

01.05.2023 – Milan's article is published in Nachrichten aus der Chemie

Milan wrote a highlight article for "Synthese in Blickpunkt" in the journal of the German Chemist's Association focusing on the most recent developments in sceletal editing and making the content available for the German speaking readership. Congratulations!

27.04.2023 - Outreach! Nils hosts the Future Day!

Today Nils is introducing an 11-year old high school student to chemistry! He put together a couple of experiments using houshold "chemicals" to show every day chemistry and biochemistry and explained the science of our daily lives as well as a bit of our work. Both mentor and mentee had a lot of fun and truely enjoyed the day!

25.04.23 – Robert starts his internship

This week we say “Welcome!” to Robert, who will join us for his lab rotation. He started off with preparing a great cake and will work in the coming weeks together with Elena on preparing light-responsive amino acids and peptides. Good luck!

20.04.2023 – Angrillen! First Group BBQ of the year

As spring seemed to be near, we plan our first group BBQ of the year – to unfortunately find out that we picked the coldest day of the week. Nevertheless, Nils and Dennis withstood the weather and made use of fire to warm their colleagues and friends and some more or less local specialties. We also took an updated picture of the group! “Sadly” we will need to repeat the event on a sunnier day to get a picture on which we are not freezing.

17-19.04.2023 – ArtMoMa Spring Workshop in Bologna

Nadja was invited to speak at the ArtMoMa Spring School 2023 in Bologna about how to use photoresponsive tools to visualize and manipulate the biological machinery (these days obviously focusing on peptide-based tools). A great meeting and a beautiful city, though the balcony of photochemistry has yet to be found…

12.04.23 – Pilar starts her Master Thesis

Today Pilar joins us to do her Master's Thesis project in our group! She previously did projects in the Meyer and Steinem labs and now will work in our group on ligh-responsive transport systems and nano storage containers for potential biological applications. Best of luck with your thesis, many adventures in our lab, and a smooth start!

24.03.2023 – Elena becomes a Hertha Sponer College Member

Elena was selected as a new member to the Hertha Sponer College of the MBExC Göttingen. “The Hertha Sponer College targets particularly talented students and early career researchers and supports personalized research training to spark and foster enthusiasm for research at the boundary of the natural sciences and biomedicine. The overall aim is to promote cutting-edge, interdisciplinary early career researchers on their way to independence, to thus educate a new generation of future research leaders.” Congrats, Elena, to this achievement, we are very proud of you and are looking forward to a great cake to celebrate!

23.03.2023 - Nadja joins the Stunde der Wissenschaft

Nadja was invited to contribute to “Eine Stunde für die Wissenschaft” of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. The discussion was all around the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), which was constituted in December 2022 to foster advances in the qualitative rather than the quantitative assessment of science and scientists. Thanks a lot for the invitation to speak about this important topic. Read more about the CoARA here.

22.03.2023 - Nadja was selected to join the 3rd YIW in Helsinki

Nadja was selected as the Germany representative for the Young Investigator Workshop (YIW2023) of the EuChemS Division of Chemistry in Life Sciences in Helsinki in May. Thanks a lot for this great honor and supporting our work!

21.03.2023 - Leon submits!

Leon Zinserling submits his Bachelor Thesis and officially concludes a wild trip through the world of synthesis, reaction monitoring, and spectroscopy! He did not let any name reaction untried in the quest of obtaining his target molecules and was usually found at the LCMS or the benchtop NMR analyzing the outcome of his endeavors. With the support of Dongchen and Nils, he wrote up a nice piece of work and finished his project – but not his stay in the group! Leon will come back as a HiWi and we are very happy for about this.

20-22.03.2023 - BENCh Retreat

Nadja travels to Burg Bodenstein to join the BENCh retreat (RTG 2455 Benchmark experiments for numerical quantum chemistry). Two and a half days filled with benchmarking of experiments and theory and vice versa past by far too quickly by highly enjoyable talks of students and guest speakers. Thanks a lot to the organizing team: Sophie, Robin, and Disha! And special thanks to Dan Obenchain for exploring the castle’s surrounding and options to conquer.

13-17.03.2023 - Chemiedozententagung 2023

Nadja travels to Dresden to attend the Chemiedozententagung 2023, together with some of her colleagues from the department. It was a great meet-up with friends and collaborators and an ideal platform to discuss science and fiction. Also, the conference dinner at the museum for hygiene, that opened its doors for us during the night was a special highlight. See you next year in Aachen!

13.03.2023 - Dennis starts his internship – Welcome!

We welcome Dennis Marzin, who will join us for his lab rotation and work with Nils on the synthesis and characterization of photoactive small molecules. Dennis was a Bachelor’s student in the Diederichsen Group and luckily already knows his way around. We wish you a smooth start and a lot of fun in the next weeks!

March 2023 - Wohooo! The group receives startup funding from the CRC1286

Good news everyone! Our group will be supported by the CRC1286 with a startup grant to strengthen our collaborations with several groups in biology and physiology! Exciting times to come :D

6-8.03.2023 - Linda, Dongchen, Nils, and Nadja were at the MBExC Retreat

After only two weeks, we go back to Volpriehausen! Same location but different science as we joined now as a team of four the retreat of the MBExC. Linda, Dongchen, and Nils presented posters, and Nadja gave (actually a couple of) presentations of the group’s research and future directions. We had fruitful discussions with old friends and made some new ones, so stay tuned on what’s coming 😊

20-22.02.2023 - Elena and Nadja join the CRC1286 Retreat

Elena and Nadja travelled to Volpriehausen close to Uslar to join the retreat of the CRC1286. Nadja delivered a talk and Elena presented a poster to introduce the group’s research and discuss ongoing projects with collaborators. The evenings invited for a relaxed get-together, good food, archery, and brain stroming sessions for new joint projects.

17.02.2023 - Trampolines at the Group Outing

Today, we left the lab a bit early to go together for a group outing to the trampoline world. We reached completely unforeseen heights and new criteria to receive a doctorate were proposed (“only one may get the title…”). Also, ninja-like speed contests as well as basketball skills could be refined. Afterwards, we went downtown for dinner to refill our carb stocks.

17.02.2023 - Angewandte Paper with the Szymanksi & Feringa Groups

A project that started during Nadja’s postdoc time and continued for a while afterwards eventually came to an end. Thus, we proudly present the results and a recent Angewante paper. Please enjoy reading our work on chemoselective, ultrafast photoclick chemistry and orthogonally reacting systems, nanoparticle-functionalization, and biorthogonal labelling!

17.02.2023 - Immanuel submitted his Thesis!

Master #2 is in the house! Today, Immanuel submitted his thesis and becomes the second Master’s graduate from our lab. He went through a wild ride of synthesis, spectroscopy, and quenching experiments optimizing a challenging FRET-assay for his system. Thanks a lot for your hard work and all the best for your future!

10-12.02.2023 - Commission Work in Hannover

Nadja travels to Hannover to serve as member of the selection commission for the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes She spent a nice weekend discussion with first year students of all disciplines about their background and interests. As usual a refreshing change from the daily routine, while enjoying a well-organized weekend at the Stephanstift in Hannover.

We are hiring!

PhD Position

January 2023 - Jacob and Stefano visit

Directly in the first week of January, we were visited by our collaborators Jacob van der Wal and Stefano Crespi from the Ångströmlaboratoriet, Uppsala. To kick of a new project, we synthesized key molecules and performed some proof-of-principle experiments in our lab. Stay tuned for more to come😊

02.10.2023 - Linda starts!

The New Year brings new faces to the group – and we say welcome to dr. Linda Eijsink! Linda joins us as a new postdoctoral researcher and will strengthen our team especially with her vast knowledge in close-to-all spectroscopic techniques that are out there. We are happy to have you with us and wish you a great start!

23.12.2022 – Holiday Break

The End (of the Year) Is Nigh - and we say goodbye for a short Holiday Break! Happy Holidays! See you again in 2023 with new adventures and science from our lab!

14.12.2022 – Goodbye Party for Brian

Time to say goodbye to Dr. Brian Pieter Corbet, one of our first group members and first postdoc of the lab, who signed up to help starting up the lab, do a bit of science, and supervise one, maybe two students. Eventually, Brian supervised and co-supervised a whole bunch of (under-)graduate students, set up literally every instrument, authored a paper after only a few months, was involved in serval other projects, and, and, and…Brian, thank you so much for being with us and all your help, you will be dearly missed! All the best for your future, we are looking forward to your visits!
As Brian was (maybe still is?) the group’s master of ceremonies, he used the evening’s opportunity to promote Nils to our specialist for fire and flames. Congratulations!

09.12.2022 – End of the Year Get-Together/Christmas Party

As December turned out to be a hectic period, we had an early Christmas-Themed Get-Together to celebrate the end of the year with all (honorary) group members, our students, and our dear friends from the Diederichsen Group. Everyone contributed to a wonderful buffet and a great decoration and Nils prepared Feuerzangenbowle to complete the selection of drinks. We showed off Christmas outfits and played Secret Santa and White Elephant – traditions to be continued next year!

07.12.2022 – Our Review on Artificial Peptides is Accepted!

Our Review “Artificial peptides to induce membrane denaturation and disruption and modulate membrane composition and fusion” is online! It was compiled by Ilze, Elena, and Nils Hesselbarth as part of the tribute collection for their late mentor Ulf Diederichsen. Congratulations to all authors!

26.11.2022 – Outreach - Nadja speaks at Saturday Morning Science

The Organizers of “Saturday Morning Science” , a cooperation of the JungChemikerForum (JCF), the young Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft (jDPG), and the local groups of Biology und Geological Sciences, invited Nadja to give a lecture on Dyes for Medicine and Imaging for pupils and students interested in STEM fields. Thank you so much for this opportunity to engage with such a young and interested audience.

24.11.2022 – PowerPoint Karaoke & Thanksgiving

The lab came together to have dinner on the occasion of American Thanksgiving, which was combined with German Glühwein. Afterwards, we practiced our presentation skilled by playing PowerPoint Karaoke organized by Elisa. Several group members contributed customized presentation featuring great topics such as Travelling with DB and Pinguins.

11.11.2022 – Department Seminar in Uppsala

Nadja was invited to visit the Angströmlaboratoriet at the University of Uppsala and present the group’s research at the department seminar – the very first external seminar talk! She spent an exciting day in meeting the local researchers and learn about their endeavors in photo- and main group chemistry. Many thanks to Sascha Ott for the invite and the whole department for their hospitality.

09.11.2022 – NMR Installation

Christmas came early this year: today our new Spinsolve 60 Benchtop NMR was installed remotely. The machine is now up and running and will help us to quickly analyse compounds and reactions mixtures based on the 19F or 1 H spectra.

08.11.2022 – Post-Retreat Event

The lab came together to take care of unfinished business from the group’s retreat and finally designed our t-shirts and exchanging photos and memories. In the same process, we awarded the prize for the “Simeth Group Retreat Task List Fulfilment” that was given to Elena this year. Congrats – may this be the start of a long tradition!

Later in November 2022 – Ayse and Muaz start their internships

Ayse and Muaz join us for their Abteilungspraktika! Ayse will work with Elena anchoring artificial peptide hybrids onto vesicular membranes and Muaz with support Elisa in making nucleotide analogues to study the fastest known enzymes. Welcome to both!

03.11.2022 – Meet the Editor - with Stefano Protti

Today Prof. Dr. Stefano Protti from the University of Pavia, Italy, visited us virtually and gave a talk on his previous work as referee and (guest) editor for the Specialist Periodical Reports on Photochemistry and for different scientific journals. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with us!

November 2022 – Felix starts his internship and Milan rejoins the group

In early November, we welcome Felix, who will support Nils in his “spicy” project on photoresponsive channel modulators during his Abeitlungspraktikum, and we welcome back Milan, who will do his Master’s thesis with us. Milan will work on the photochemical release of metabolites with novel target-specific tools. Have a good start!

30.10.2022 – The first research paper is accepted!

It is out! Exactly one months after submission, the first research article of the lab was accepted for publications in Eur. J. Org. Chem. as part of the special issue “#NextGenOrgChem”!! Many congratulations to Brian, Malte, and Elena and a special thanks to our collaborator Stefano Crespi (University of Uppsala) for his support. Check out how we combined dihydroazulene photoswitches and peptides and what we learned from that here. Let it be the first of many 😊

24-27.10.2022 – Conference Time: Ilze, Elisa, and Elena give talks!

A part of the team joined the “2nd Virtual Symposium for Young Organic Chemists” . The abstracts of Ilze, Elisa, and Elena were selected as oral contributions and the three gave talks on Thursday presenting their individual PhD topics. Great job and exceptionally well done!

October 2022 -Pia, Marga, Leon, and Hossein join!

October came with a fresh wind and many new faces: Hossein, who is a Humboldt fellow with MBExC colleague Wolfram Zimmermann, will do the synthetic part of his work as a guest in our lab. Pia and Marga are joining us for their Master’s lab rotation. Pia will be working with Elena on the synthesis and characterization of unnatural amino acids and Marga will support Brian in his work on chromatogonally orthogonal chemistry. Leon will start his Bachelor’s work under the guidance of Dongchen and Nils developing novel smart labelling agents for proteins.

15-19.10.2022 – Group Retreat in Wremen!

On Saturday noon, we started our train trip North to arrive at a small holiday apartment in Wremen, right next to the North Sea. The following three days were packed with scientific lectures, presentation training, and team building events, such as a bike tour along the coast, visiting the Zoo in Bremerhaven under heavy rain, and a hike to a local watch tower. Special thanks to Dr. Katrin Rustler, who joined us virtually as external speaker explaining us what she is doing at Iris Biotech (https://www.iris-biotech.de/) and to everyone for their contributions to science, the cooking evenings and the general organization making this event a great success!

12-14.10.2022 – ENLIGHT Workshop & Get-together with the Crespis and the Brownies

Together with fellow junior faculty Anna Krawczuk and Dan Obenchain, Nadja organized a workshop on “Observable Solvent Effects” supported by a grant of the ENLIGHT network in Göttingen. We welcomed representatives from the lab of Emilio Cocinero (Universidad del País Vasco, Spain), Wesley Browne (University of Groningen, the Netherlands), and Stefano Crespi (Uppsala University, Sweden) and Brian and Elena joined from our group. After the workshop, the whole lab used the opportunity to mingle with the Crespis and the Brownies, showing them our local bouldering gym and going out for dinner!

30.09.2022 – Submission and Birthday Party – the Lab turns 1!

The last day of September was a special day for several reasons: just making the deadlines, we submitted our first review and research paper in the afternoon. Then, we smoothly transitioned into celebrating this milestone achievement together with the first birthday of our lab. Thanks for everyone from both our and the Diederichsen group and some friends and adopted members joining! Enjoy your long, well-deserved weekend and keep your fingers crossed!

29.09.2022 – Nadja speaks at the U4Society Leadership Training event in Göttingen

Nadja was invited to speak about her experiences on transition periods at the U4Society Leadership Training event in Göttingen together with local colleague Kata Moser and Tina Kretschmer and, Benjamin Leruth, members of Young Academy Groningen. Specifically, Nadja focused on her starting period as an assistant professor and reported on her new tasks and the challenges facing bureaucracy – surprising some of the Finish delegates that we still use stamps and ink at German universities 😊

27.09.2022 – 2nd München-Leiden Symposium (Virtual)

The group attended the 2nd München-Leiden Symposium (Virtual) and spent a part of the day on listening to exciting talks featuring the latest developments in Chemical Biology.

20.09.2022 – Amrita joins as new postdoc

Today, Amrita Chaudhuri joins us as a postdoctoral fellow supported by a start-up grant of the CRC1190. She comes to us after a PhD at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and a short postdoctoral stay in Frankfurt. Welcome and much success with you research!

19.-22.09.2022 – 28th Lecture Conference on Photochemistry in Düsseldorf

Brian went to Düsseldorf to represent the lab at the 28th Lecture Conference on Photochemistry. He presented our work on DHA-based peptidic switches as a poster and was additionally selected for an oral flash presentation!

15.09.2022 – Goodbye to Hanna, Laurin, and Malte

Time to say goodbye to three of our long-term students: Malte was the first member of the Simeth group and finished his studies. Laurin was with us since the early days for a project that transitioned into his Bachelor’s thesis and later as HiWi. Also, Hanna stayed with us for almost one year for her internship and her Bachelor’s project that she did together with the Janshof lab. Both with switch university for their masters. Best of luck to the three of you! Keep us updated on your endeavors and stay in touch!

13.09.2022 – Malte submits his Master’s Thesis

The 13th of September was a special day for the lab – our very first lab member Malte, who joined us in December 2022 when there was not even a round bottom flask, submitted his Master’s Thesis together with his birthday! Thank you for your dedication and hard work, we are very proud of you being the first Master’s graduate of the lab!

11.-14.09.2022 – MACH5 in Plön

Nadja went to the castle of Plön to join the very first MACH5 (Molecular Machinery: Modelling, Making, Measuring) conference in the beautiful North of Germany jointly organized by Rainer Herges and Alberti Credi to bring the next generation of molecular machinists together. Thanks so much for the invitation to join this phenomenal meeting, we are looking forward to seeing you again in 2024 in Italy – on another castle 😊

05.-07.09.2022 – ORCHEM in Münster

A part of the lab travelled to Münster to join this years ORCHEM – in person!! Elena, Elisa, Ilza, and Nils presented posters and Nils’ poster was selected for an oral flash presentation additionally! The four enjoyed their very first conference trip, the fantastic science and the city of Münster and already planning the next one…

01.09.2022 - Tun-Hui starts his internship

Tun-Hui starts his Abteilungspraktikum and becomes the first internal intern that we welcome in the lab. He will be working with Dongchen and new labeling approaches for peptides and proteins. Welcome Tun-Hui!

27.08-05.09.2022 – Nadja guides a workshop on Photochemistry in Wroclaw

Nadja together with her long-term collaborator Stefano Crespi (University of Uppsala) travelled to Wroclaw (Breslau) in Poland for a Summer Academy of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and led there a workshop on Photochemistry in the broadest sense. The 10 days were full of exciting discussions, bright moments, and enlightened students. Thanks all for your great contributions!

03.08.2022 – Jannis submits his Bachelor’s Thesis

Jannis submits his thesis and becomes Bachelor Nr 3 of the laboratory! He spent the last three months with Nils synthesizing highly functionalized dyes and studying their photolysis reactivity in different solvents. Congratulations on your nice thesis – we hope to see you soon again!

11.08.2022 – Outreach time! Elena and Brian meet the XLAB

On Thursday we had young visitors around – a group of four international high school students, that is taking part in the XLAB International Science Camp 2022 visited us to see how we use luminescence in our research. Elena and Brian spent the morning with the group and explained the basics of UV-Vis absorption and emission spectroscopy. Then, they helped the students to synthesize their own fluorophores. The group followed the reaction by UV-Vis and analyzed the quality of emission properties using fluorescence spectroscopy. The final experiment they performed together was a quenching study, which eventually allowed them to see and understand FRET effects. An exciting morning and a great experience!

09.08.2022 – BENCh Lecture

Nadja give a lecture for BENCh to talk about “Studying the (photo)isomerization pathways of organic photoswitches in a cross-disciplinary approach”, introducing the merger of theory and experiment she used during her PhD and postdoc work and her plans on how to exploit similar tools in the current and future research of the group. Thanks a lot to Dan Obenchain for the invitation and acting as a chair person – and obviously for initiating a BENCh-Beer-Brezen event!

08.08.2022 – Group Outing!

This time our group outing was a bit more local – but not less explorative! We split up into three teams and had a treasure hunt through Göttingen downtown solving (more or less) tricky riddles and tackling several picture challenges. Afterwards, we came together to enjoy a summer BBQ and cold beers together.

August 2022 – Welcome to Stefano

Junior group leader Dr. Stefano Crespi, University of Uppsala, Sweden, will stay a few weeks at the Department on Chemistry to strengthen existing collaborations and kick-start new ones. To introduce him properly to Göttingen, Nadja and a few (junior) group leaders took him for Italian dinner. Great having you here!

29.07.2022 - End of the Semester Paella & BBQ

To celebrate the end of the lecture period this summer, the team came together with friends from the Diederichsen Group, the Walker Group, the Bismuto Lab, the Alcarazo Group, and the Obenchain Lab. Manuel prepared Spanish Paella, which we combined with a BBQ and some beers. Great way to finalize the semester!

20.07.2022 - Italian Aperitivo

The group – missing some members due to the holiday season – came together with friends to enjoy an Italian aperitivo with carefully selected imported goods mixed with (more or less) local specialties. A very divertingly event on a quite warm July evening that needs to be repeated soon!

04.07.2022 - FCI funds our research

The week started with great news! Our lab received a Material Costs Allowance from the Fonds der Chemischen Instustrie (FCI). Thank you so much for your support!

30.06.2022 - Jannis receives a teaching prize!

Our very own Jannis Herling received a prize for his outstanding teaching achievements in Inorganic Chemistry tutoring the first year's lab course! The ceremony took place at the 14th Göttinger ChemieForum of the University organized by the JCF. Congratulations, Jannis, on this very well-deserved award!

26.06.2022 - Soccer Tournament

Hanna, Jannis, Elisa, and Nadja went to do some sports last Sunday - despite burning sun and hot temperatures - and competed in the department’s soccer tournament organized by the Fachschaft Chemie. While Hanna and Nadja ended on place 3, Elisa’s team made it to the finals and finished on place 2! Now we have one year to recover and practice to join with an own team in the coming summer!

22. & 23.06.2022 - Summer Festival & Group Meeting BBQ

The group enjoyed the nice weather in June joining the department’s Summer festival 2022 organized by the Fachschaft Chemie on Wednesday and moved the group meeting to the institute’s terrace practicing flash presentation of the individual projects. We had a great time and completely forgot to take proper pictures…

20.06.2022 - Schlag den Prof!

Team Simeth consisting of Nils, Frida, Nils Hesselbarth ( Diederichsen Group), and Nadja competed at the joint event of the young sections of DPG and JCF Göttingen Schlag den Prof. The team made the second place in a tight match against team Ropers from the physics showing hidden talents in building electronic circuits and geography! Thanks for the great organization and group members and friends for your support!

19-22.06.2022 - ISCHA6 in Göttingen

Dongchen and Nadja joined the International Symposium on C-H activation (ISCHA) with scholarships from the Wöhler Research Institute for Sustainable Chemistry (Thank you!). The meeting took place in Göttingen this year and was organized by conference chair Lutz Ackermann featuring the most recent developments in C-H functionalization by the most diverse methodologies.

13.06.2022 - MBExC Meeting

Brian, Dongchen, and Nadja joined an internal symposium of the MBExC to meet colleagues and discuss next steps will collaborators.
Also, Nadja was elected as a deputy member of the research cluster's board. Looking forward to the new tasks to come!

June 2022 - Milan starts

In early June 2022 Milan Weitzel started his internship (Abteilungspraktikum) with us. He will work together with Brian, synthesize(d) a couple of dyes and will focus on comparing their characterization via in operando UV-Vis, HPLC-MS, and in operando NMR. Welcome to the Group!

Later in May 2022 - Coming & Going

Laurin submitted his thesis and became the second Bachelor of the group! He worked with Elisa and synthesized substrate analogous for OMPD. He will be missed - but not for long as he will come back to work with us over the summer as a HiWi. In contrast, Ferdinand will leave us for longer as he finished his internship and went back to Munich to continue his PhD there. Good luck with this endeavor, we are looking forward to you visiting us again! And last but not least: Immanuel just joined our team for his Master's thesis - he will work on bringing many different dyes together to probe membrane interactions. Welcome!

18.05.2022 - Bier & Brezeln

Nadja was invited by the Fachschaft Chemie to speak at the first Beer & Pretzels lecture of the semester to explain the research of the group to the students of the department. Using photochromism, she showed the spatiotemporat resolution of light (See Video).
Many thanks for the invitation and organisation of the event (incl. Tegernseer beer!), and a special thanks to Mr. Frauen, who did an excellent job as chairperson. It was great to see so many interested students in the lecture hall - we are looking forward to welcoming many of you in our labs to show you more of the magic of light!

14.05.2022 - Hiking Trip to the Brocken

On a sunny Saturday, the team travelled to Torfhaus in the Harz mountains and hiked from there to the Brocken. As we managed the climb pretty well, we decided to take a different route back and went via the Eckertalsperre to Bad Harzburg crossing the former border of East and West Germany. On the way, we saw a lot of other things to do, so we definitely will be back! For now, we are looking forward to a relaxing Sunday 😊
Special kudos go to Jannis, who acted as guide!

12.05.2022 - First BBQ of the season

It was finally time for "Angrillen" - we had the first BBQ of the season together with the Diederichsen Group, the Walker Group, the Bismuto Lab, and the Alcarazo Group. It was great to mingle between the different working groups and get to know each other in this informal setting :)

09. and 11.05.2022 - Elena organizes Pint of Science Göttingen

Elena and her colleagues from the local Pint of Science Team bring the worldwide famous event to life in Göttingen. They put together a fantastic program and our group went out to join the event and support our friend and colleague from Physical Chemistry, Dan Obenchain . Unfortunately, it was over much too fast, and we can’t wait for next year!
If you are interested to join or to contribute, please contact the local organizers!

May 2022 - Two New Arrivals

Spring brings fresh faces into the lab! We welcome Jannis Herling, who joins us for his Bachelor's project. He will work together with Nils on photolabile compounds. Our second new chemist is Ferinand Kiss, a PhD student from the de Vivie-Riedle Group at the LMU Munich. Ferdinand will stay with us for two weeks and work together with Brian.

19.04.2022 - PhD Defense in Groningen

Nadja traveled to Groningen to join the PhD ceremony of Jana Volaric as a member of the opposition. After more than three years of working together in the lab, sharing an office, and writing an enormous review article together, it was great to take part in this very special day – even wearing a toga (special thanks to Wiktor Szymanski!). All the best for your postdoc, Dr. Volaric!

11.04.2022 - Spring-Break Get-Together

We used the (a bit) calm(er) week(s) before Easter for larger project discussions and brainstromed ideas which directions we want to explore in our individual studies. To close the week and send a few group members on holidays, the team came together to enjoy some cakes and sweets.
We wish you a nice Easter/Spring break and welcome you back in a few days when the Semester starts!

28.03.-01.04.2022 - MBExC Retreat

Nadja joined the MBExC's retreat 2022 in Ramsau, Austria. She introduced the research of the group to the other members of the Cluster and brainstormed possibilities for furture joint projects. Five days packed with science and discussions on all levels went by far too quickly. A big "Thank you" to the organizers around Heike, Susann, Janina, Fritz and Tobias for making this memorable event possible!

21-23.03.2022 - Chemiedozententagung '22

Together with colleagues from the department, Nadja traveled to Saarbrücken to attend the Chemiedozententagung 2022. A great opportunity to catch up with old friends and explore opportunities for new collaborations. Many thanks to the organizers for putting together this great meeting!

21.03.2022 - Frida submits her Thesis

As the first Bachelor's student of the group, Frida submitted her thesis today! Over the past months, she worked with Nils on the synthesis and characterization of novel photoactive biomolecules and studied them using our fiber-coupled UV-Vis spectrometer. Thank you for your hard work and valuable contributions and all the best for your ongoing studies!

03.03.2022 - First Group Event

The team came together for a first team event: We had a short workshop on project design and discussed different approaches and important aspects of designing and conducting a research project. Afterwards, we went bowling. While we actually played in two teams against each other, it became quickly clear that individual mentor-trainee competitions dominated the evening - with our undergraduates challanging their supervisors.

01.03.22 - Sabine and Dongchen join!

Sabine Schacht takes up her new position as secretary of the junior research groups of our institute and will consequently support our group from the administrative side. Dongchen just finished his Master's project with the Heinis Group and will join us for his PhD. Welcome to both! We're happy to have you with us!

February 23-28 - New equipment and new Light

The last couple of days were busy and exciting for the lab - we finally got our new HPLC-MS system installed and also changed the light in our darkroom. We are looking forward to study our molecules with the new equipment and learn more about their properties.

February 2022 - Welcome to Brian

Brian Corbet starts as the first postdoc in our lab! He just graduated from the Feringa Lab and will work on wavelength-orthogonal functional systems. Just arrived, he directly initiated Denksport sessions that will take place twice a month for the whole group.

January 2022 - Let there Be Light!

Exciting times - Frida, Nils, and Malte synthesized the first photoresponsive compounds of the lab! Next up, adjusting the scale and introducing some functional units :)

27.01.2022 - Highlight in Angewandte Chemie published

Nadja's highlight "A Molecular Pump Facilitates Mechanical Adsorption Away from Equilibrium" on the recent Science paper of Astumian and Stoddart was published in Angewandte Chemie!

02, 03, and 09.12.2021 - Talks in December

Nadja joins the Network Meeting for Humboldt Committee Members to speak about her experiences as a Feodor-Lynen Fellow on 02.12 and introduces the research of the group to the members of the Hertha-Sponer-College during their retreat (03/12) and to the Chemistry department during the GDCh Christmas Colloquium 2021 (09/12).

December 2021 - First Group Members arrive!

Exciting times! The first group members arrive: Nils and Malte join the group for their PhD and Master's projects, respectively, and Frida will do her Bachelor's thesis in our lab working with Nils. PhD students Elena, Elisa, and Ilze from the Diederichsen Group, supported by their Bachelor students, Hanna and Laurin, will do their projects in collaboration with our lab.

29-30.11.2021 - Photopharmacology III

Nadja joined the 3rd International Conference on Photopharmacology, which took place as online edition. She presented a poster and gave an oral flash presentation.
Many thanks to Dirk Trauner and Drew Woolley for putting together an impressive line-up of speakers and bringing this fantastic meeting to our offices and homes!

08-10.11.2021 - Humboldt Network Meeting

Nadja traveled to Köln to join the first Hybrid edition of the Network Meeting of the Humboldt Foundation and gave a talk there on research she did during her time as Feodor-Lynen Fellow in Groningen.
Lots of fun and great people both on site and online!

01.10.2021 - The Lab opens!

After an finishing her postdoc with Ben Feringa, Nadja moves to Göttingen to start as an Assistant Professor at the IOBC and at the MBExC.