Rafał Szabla

High propensity to bind such protective metal cations could have enabled the emergence of first functional peptides. It could have also limited the sequence space.

Overall, it was a fantastic collaboration with the Mansy, Sasselov and Kufner labs as well as other experimenters!

Zinc can stabilize the smallest functional protein motifs. In our @chemicalscience.rsc.org article, we also showed that Zn2+ protects small potentially prebiotic peptides from photodegradation involving photoinduced electron transfer.

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Quinol–Enedione Rearrangement The quinol–enedione rearrangement enables the synthesis of 2-cyclohexene-1,4-diones from readily available para-quinol substrates. Building on sporadic early reports of this transformation, we have op...

I had a great pleasure to collaborate with @biomimetic-chem.bsky.social , develop and characterize a previously poorly understood reaction - quinol-enedione rearrangement. See the excellent experimental work with a small support of my DFT calculations😉 !

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

@chemistryeurope.bsky.social

We evaluated the binding of activated dinucleotides in nonenzymatic RNA self-replication scenarios using molecular dynamics simulations. See the 1st paper by Basia, a 2nd year PhD student in my lab🥳!

chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Preprint:
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Check out our 2024 #ChemSciMostPopular chemical biology collection, which is online now! Read the collection here:

pubs.rsc.org/en/jour...

#ChemBio #ChemSky 🧪

📣 The abstract submission deadline for the 32nd International Conference on Photochemistry has been extended to 12 May 2025!

🔬Join us in Aachen, 13–18 July 2025, for great science in a historic setting!

New paper from our lab just out @pnas.org! 🚀
Using free energy simulations, #AIphaFold and #cryoEM refinement, we uncovered a key conformational change in a paradigm-shifting #CRISPR-associated #transposon capable of precise gene knock-ins. 🔍🧬
www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

Signs of life on a distant planet? Not so fast, say these astronomers Bold claims of ‘biosignature’ molecules trigger an outpouring of scepticism.

Signs of life on a distant planet? Not so fast, say these astronomers www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Our research article about photoinduced electron transfer in DNA was selected as one of the most popular Chemical Science papers in chemical biology!

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

@chemicalscience.rsc.org @wroclaw-tech.bsky.social

Are you using nonadiabatic dynamics for complex systems? Join us in sunny Spain for the "Future Directions in Non-Adiabatic Dynamics" workshop (Sept 2-5, 2025) at CECAM-Zaragoza! Register by June 3. Check out the event page: tinyurl.com/2nvnanf2

#NAMD #NonAdiabaticDynamics #CECAM

Trump’s siege of science: how the first 30 days unfolded and what’s next The breakneck pace and devastating impact of the administration’s policy changes has shocked researchers.

Trump’s siege of science: how the first 30 days unfolded & what’s next

Once upon a time leaders believed that science was essential to nation’s security, to better health, to more jobs, to a higher standard of living & to cultural progress
🧪 #academicSky
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Last week to register to the 11th Winter School in Computational Chemistry (27-31 Jan)!

take a look at our great program, register for free and come along to learn a lot about #theochem 😊

winterschool.cc/program

I have a new paper in Dialogues on Climate Change exploring climate outcomes under current policies. I find that we are likely headed toward 2.7C by 2100 (with uncertainties from 1.9C to 3.7C), and that high end emissions scenarios have become much less likely.

journals.sagepub.com...

It was a lot of fun and I'm slowly coming back to shape🏂. Sadly, we do not get to many snowy days anymore.

With ERC grants it's best to celebrate the submission, because you never know if you get it. This week I submitted a ERC proposal for the 4th time (5th time counting Synergy). This time a CoG. Then, I took Thursday off to do some snowboarding, for the 1st time in 10 years 🙂.

Polish scientists describe new type of chemical reaction in formation of DNA building blocks Quantum chemists from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology have described the principles of a completely new class of chemical reactions. It was discovered during research on the formation...

A very nice news item was recently released by the service Science in Poland (in English). It describes our work on the identification of a new type of photoredox reactions, which can be enabled by sulfur-sulfur (chalcogen bonding) interactions 🙂.

scienceinpoland.pl/en/news/news...

To choose a career, I needed to do more than ‘follow my dream’ Practical advice helped this international scientist figure out her post-Ph.D. direction

"[My adviser] told me that instead of focusing on finding a dream job, I should think about what I am good at and what makes me happy at least 80% of the time. This advice surprised me at first, but it ended up being exactly what I needed to hear." scim.ag/3DHtLCc

Oh great! For a moment I thought it was Terraforming Mars, but I didn't recognize some of the pieces :). Great game :)

What's the name of the game :)?

Good Practices in Database Generation for Benchmarking Density Functional Theory Advancements in DFT over the past three decades have been driven by extensive benchmarking studies. This review outlines best practices in database generation, offering guidance on key methodological...

#compchem Good read: Good Practices in Database Generation for Benchmarking Density Functional Theory #compchemsky doi.org/10.1002/wcms...

Okay, can now perform iterative automatic ML potential fitting and finetuning including benchmark (for certain properties).

Looks like I can also easily use both GPUs and CPUs in the same workflow despite the fact that they don't have access to the same hard drive. 🙃 But more on Monday.

We finally had some snowfall and with 5 cm thicker layer I would be nordic skiing already. Still nordic walking in these conditions is a lot of fun ;).

Najciekawsza część mojej pracy – wywiady w różnej formie (txt, audio) – z badaczkami i badaczami z różnych dziedzin. Ileż się można dowiedzieć! Polecam kolejną rozmowę⬇️

... and as every year, home made burgers 🙂.

I took a 10 day break from running, but here I am back on the trails for my every year New Year's Eve run. Freezy but fun ;). Legs always feel nice after a break🙂

Does anyone have an easy to use program or web interface for generating simple, yet appealing Gantt charts for grant proposals? I'm playing around with TikZ, albeit with mixed results... The outcome is clear and readable, yet the interface is a bit of pain...

Photo of a slide from a presentation. Text says: To achieve something that is... ...impactful in contemporary science... ...and to be singled out as a scientist... ...who leaves their mark on science... ...and ultimately technologies, you need to become recognized... ...widely as having... DONE YOUR OWN THING This goal means that you make... ...a conscious decision... ...to summon up enough courage... ...to tackle a big problem... ...for which no one has provided... ...a satisfactory scientific answer. Tackle a BIG PROBLEM

Photo of presentation slide: Stoddart Research Group 1967-2017 Six Universities Sheffield, Birmingham, UCLA, Northwestern, Tianjin, University of New South Wales One Company ICI Corporate Laboratory Two Start-Up Companies Four Countries UK/US/China / Australia During 50 years 50 Different Nationalities among 500 Grad Students / Postdocs SCIENCE IS GLOBAL / SCIENCE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES

Saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Fraser Stoddart.

I was inspired by a plenary talk he did at a conference a few years back... His embrace of diversity of ideas and scientists should guide us all in our work. #ChemSky

Really saddened by the news that Sir Fraser Stoddard has just passed away. He was still at Birmingham when I was just starting out as an undergraduate almost 30 years ago. He will be very missed by many.

Starting from the Work Programme 2025, I'm no longer eligible for a Starting grant, so I'm applying for a Consolidator grant for the first time. Good thing is that I like the current proposal the most so far :). 15 days left until the deadline.