Art Winter

Breaking Bonds with Short-Wave Infrared Light: BODIPY Photocages for Two-Photon Activation in the 900–1500 nm NIR-II Window Photocages enable light-triggered cargo release in biological systems, but their excitation is often restricted to UV/visible wavelengths, where tissue penetration is limited. Two-photon excitation (2PE) offers a solution by allowing near-infrared (NIR) or short-wave infrared (SWIR) activation within biological windows of maximal tissue transparency. While photocaging in the first biological window (650–950 nm) has been demonstrated, applications in the second biological window (1000–1350 nm) remain unexplored. Here, we investigate the two-photon absorption (2PA) properties of 11 BODIPY photocages featuring single-photon absorption spanning 450–750 nm, focusing on 3- and 5-position substitutions to identify key motifs that enhance 2PA in the 900–1500 nm range. We find that strong charge transfer character and increased vibrational freedom can relax symmetry-related selection rules, significantly enhancing 2PA. Cross sections (δ) exceeded 4000 GM at 900 nm for a bis(styryl)-BODIPY with carbazole units and reached 1110 GM at 1240 nm for its monostyryl analog. Two additional B-methylated molecules with improved uncaging quantum yields were synthesized, yielding uncaging action cross sections (δΦu) up to 5.8 GM at 900 nm and around 1 GM at 1300–1400 nm. Notably, these modifications preserve the core photophysical properties of BODIPY, making them ideal for molecular engineering. These findings highlight key design principles for efficient 2P-activatable photoactuators operating in the NIR-II biological window and show that heterolytic C–O bond cleavage can be triggered by two SWIR photons carrying as little as 20 kcal/mol each.

Fun collaboration with ‪@wachtveitl-lab.bsky.social‬
on two-photon BODIPY photocaging using short-wave IR light! Congrats to Yagmur and Alexandra! @jacs.acspublications.org pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

“After watching TikTok videos about saving strategies, she came across indexed universal life insurance, a type of life insurance that includes a death benefit and a cash value component…”. 😢

Congrats to @kirillkuznetsov.bsky.social for his article just accepted in @chemicalscience.rsc.org on the (photo-)toxicity of some photocages, which were found to be far from being inert carriers. Wonderful collaboration with @arthurhwinter.bsky.social
@cariouk.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

Forget in silico, in situ, etc. welcome in spodoptera

First ballgame of the year

They forgot to remove the boc!

Gloat, I say. Congrats!

Full house for Gordie Miller’s last lecture

Happy family

A little Winter at the beginning of spring …

Komadhie reports the smallest photocage with high photosensitivity in @chemicalscience.rsc.org pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Neat paper from Perrin lab. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

In the vale of tears, it is nice to find some little joys

An excerpt from a paper in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, where the authors state at one point: "As strongly requested by the reviewers, here we cite some reference (list of numbers) although they are completely irrelevant to the present work"

Sent in by a reader - I think many people have had this impulse, but few have acted on it so decisively!

Looks like a singlet oxygen generator… I wouldn’t want to invest it…

A demo of the origin of chirality

Jack, Jim, and Johnnie

Stenhouse Salts: Visible Light Photoswitches for Protic Environments Designing photoswitches that have large structural changes, are visible-light responsive, and are compatible with water is a major challenge for moving toward applications in biological systems. Despi...

That was fast. Check out Julie Peterson’s first paper as a PI at Bowling Green out in @acsjacs.bsky.social! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

We are looking for a postdoc with a background in synthetic organic chemistry to develop new organic radical-based probes for solid-state dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-NMR spectroscopy. #chempostdocs #chempostdocjobs isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/IowaStat…

This thing on?