Giulio Ragazzon

Shoutout to Kaiyuan, Federico, & Shaymaa (not on bsky), as well as a big thank you to our collaborators (@stefanborsley.bsky.social, @epenocchio.bsky.social, @claudiabonfio.bsky.social), and Job's team!

I believe these works are also a nice example of how focusing on network properties (and specifically ratchet mechanisms, the principles underlying molecular machines) enables rather complex tasks using very simple molecules.

A bit that I particularly like of our work: we did the key experiments guided by theory, which helped us to find conditions where small differences were amplified, and even revealed nonlinearities.

The two works have the same root, but then explore different aspects: Boekhoven and coworkers realized selective transport, while we focused on kinetic aspects which enable pumping in the presence of a chemical fuel on either side of the barrier.

Long story short, the works were treated largely independently: we found constructive editors and reviewers, but the randomness of peer review also appeared. For us it was a bit faster, so we waited to share the work more broadly, ideally returning the big favor they did initially by waiting for us.

So, we coordinated: they were incredibly kind [thanks!🙌] to wait for us to write the manuscript and few [very intense] weeks later we uploaded to ChemRxiv both works, submitting then to the same peer reviewed journal.

They had decided to write the work and had the manuscript basically ready, while we were still attempting transport through lipid membranes.

Job & his team were incredibly open in discussing their findings. We had both achieved the key milestones, and both teams attempted transport through lipid membranes with little success.

..first thing he mention upon arrival : they were also working on active transport! 😱

Last fall I was invited by @boekhovenlab.bsky.social at TUM for a PhD defense: we had been using "their" carbodiimides to achieve active transport and was looking forward to discussing the systems with him, so I anticipated the topic shortly before arriving..

Pumping molecules against a gradient without a pump?

Back-to-back with @boekhovenlab.bsky.social, we describe minimal systems that use chemical energy to transport molecules against a concentration gradient.

It started with a little shock!🧵

Us: shorturl.at/smQNF
Job's team: shorturl.at/zftps

Supramolecular approaches for the treatment of hypoxic regions in tumours Nature Reviews Chemistry, Published online: 04 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41570-025-00705-7Hypoxic tumours present considerable challenges in cancer treatment owing to their specific chemistry, biology and physics, which leads to resistances to conventional therapies. This Review explores innovative strategies based on supramolecular chemistry to overcome these obstacles and discusses future research directions that might help translating supramolecular approaches to the clinics.

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Les inscriptions aux “Journées de Chimie Supramoléculaire” JCS2025 sont maintenant ouvertes (gratuit mais obligatoire pour les étudiants, doctorants et post-doctorants) jcs2025.sciencesconf.org

👋Our department at the Technical University of Denmark is looking for an assistant/associate professor in *any* chemical discipline! 🧪🇩🇰

Check it out and feel free to get in touch 💬

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efzu.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Peng-Lai, @stefanborsley.bsky.social, Martin & our collaborators Alessandro and @giusepponelab.bsky.social demonstrate how a catalyst transduces chemical energy to perform mechanical work in www.nature.com/articles/s41... in @nature.com. tinyurl.com/jny7nen5. Animation @scicommstudios.bsky.social😀

Power Strokes in Molecular Motors: Predictive, Irrelevant, or Somewhere in Between? For several decades, molecular motor directionality has been rationalized in terms of the free energy of molecular conformations visited before and after the motor takes a step, a so-called power stroke mechanism with analogues in macroscopic engines. Despite theoretical and experimental demonstrations of its flaws, the power stroke language is quite ingrained, and some communities still value power stroke intuition. By building a catalysis-driven motor into simulated numerical experiments, we here systematically report on how directionality responds when the motor is modified accordingly to power stroke intuition. We confirm that the power stroke mechanism generally does not predict motor directionality. Nevertheless, the simulations illustrate that the relative stability of molecular conformations should be included as a potential design element to adjust the motor directional bias. Though power strokes are formally unimportant for determining directionality, we show that practical attempts to alter a power stroke have side effects that can in fact alter the bias. The change in the bias can align with what power stroke intuition would have suggested, offering a potential explanation for why the flawed power stroke mechanism can retain apparent utility when engineering specific systems.

If you've ever read about molecular motors, you've probably wondered about "power strokes." We looked into that by simulating a catalysis-driven molecular motor explicitly 🧐

I am super happy to share my latest work with Alex, Geyao, and Todd @nuchemistry.bsky.social

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Thank you @andrewbissette.bsky.social you for handling the manuscript smoothly and for arranging this Preview!

Bluesky Starter Packs - Bluesky Directory Browse a list of Bluesky Starter Packs. Discover and connect with your community on Bluesky

Check out starter packs in #ChemSky to find people quickly: blueskydirectory.com/starter-pack... there's a bunch of good ones.

We are pleased to have 14 young European scientists visit us for the 3rd Chemistry Europe Early Career Researchers Meeting