Institute of Molecular Physical Science (IMPS), ETH Zurich

Farewell after three decades of chemistry at ETH Zurich Peter Chen, Professor of Physical-Organic Chemistry, will be delivering a farewell lecture to mark his upcoming retirement. Chen is a man with a remarkable history who has played a significant role in...

Peter Chen’s farewell lecture, entitled “Chemical Stories”, will take place on 22 October 2025 from 5.15 to 6.30 pm in the Audi Max (HG F30) at ETH Zurich.

Open Call for NOMIS–ETH Postdoctoral Fellowships The 2025 call for applications for the NOMIS–ETH Fellowship Programme within the Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life is open. Researchers are invited to apply until 7 November 2025, at 17:00 Zuri...

📣 Open Call – Applications are now open for the 2025 NOMIS–ETH Postdoctoral Fellowships at the @copl-eth.bsky.social. @ethz.ch

A great opportunity for early-career researchers to lead interdisciplinary projects on the origin & prevalence of life.

Learn more and apply: shorturl.at/RfjJJ

Zürcher Museen an der langen Nacht Die Nacht wird zum Tag! Entdecke die ausserordentliche Vielfalt der Zürcher Museen am 7. September von 18-02 Uhr.

On 6 September, ETH Zurich takes part in the Zürcher Nacht der Museen. Discover extract ETH Zurich, the Graphische Sammlung and the Thomas Mann Archive at the main building, explore geology at focusTerra, and step into science history at the Semper Observatory.

Program:

Uncovering Cooperativity in Molecular Glues: Insights and Simulations | Shu-Yu Chen posted on the topic | LinkedIn While cooperativity is often seen as a desirable feature of low-weight molecular glues (MGs)—particularly for mitigating the hook effect (or prozone phenomenon) in targeted protein degradation (TPD)—i...

(2/2) See also the summary LinkedIn post by Shu-Yu Chen:
www.linkedin.com/posts/shu-yu...

Cooperative Free Energy: Induced Protein–Protein Interactions and Cooperative Solvation in Ternary Complexes Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) play an essential role in biological processes. Molecules that stabilize or induce PPIs in ternary complexes have received growing attention for their therapeutic potential in engaging “undruggable” targets and their high selectivity. Here, we investigate the thermodynamics of the cooperative phenomenon in ternary complexes. The thermodynamics of cooperativity are characterized by the cooperative free energy, which comprises induced PPIs, cooperative solvation free energy, ligand-associated geometric free-energy costs, and gas-phase correlation. Importantly, the induced PPIs only account for the binding affinity between stabilized conformations of the protein partners, i.e., the free-energy change associated with the conformational transition during protein–ligand binding is not accounted for. By introducing an approximated expression for the cooperative free energy, we developed a rapid computational method, which allowed us to crudely predict cooperativity in eight ternary complexes (Kendall τ = 0.79). We highlight that the term cooperativity used in protein–protein stabilization does not represent the cooperativity phenomenon in three-body systems. We also critically discuss the counterintuitive interpretation of cooperative free energy due to its asymmetric nature. Our study shows how cooperativity stabilizes ternary complexes and provides a thermodynamic basis of cooperativity in protein–ligand–protein complexes.

(1/2) Read the latest, collaborative article about "Cooperative Free Energy" by Shu-Yu Chen, Sereina Riniker, Riccardo Solazzo at @ethz.ch, and Marianne Fouché, Hans-Joerg Roth, and Birger Dittrich from Novartis in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation:
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

🚀 News from Our Group at ETH Zurich! | Ioannis Pagonakis posted on the topic | LinkedIn 🚀 News from Our Group at ETH Zurich! I'm delighted to share that one more theoretical gyrotron paper from our group has been selected as an Editor’s Pick in the latest issue of Physics of Plasmas. We...

(3/3) See also the summary LinkedIn post by Ioannis Pagonakis: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Effects of reflected electrons on the efficiency of high-power gyrotrons Efficiency is a key factor for high-power gyrotrons, particularly in future fusion power plants, where a large number of gyrotron units will be required for pla

(2/3) in the Editor’s Pick of Physics of Plasmas!
Read the article here: pubs.aip.org/aip/pop/arti...

(1/3) The exciting and innovative study featuring a novel approach to enhancing the efficiency of high-power gyrotrons by Lea Marti, Ioannis Pagonaiks, Chieh-Lin Chiang, Chuanren Wu, Jérémy Genoud, Marthe Millen, Jean-Philippe Hogge, and Alexander Barnes was highlighted

Attosecond spectroscopy of molecular charge transfer uncovers a 1.5-fs delay in population transfer - Nature Communications While population transfer between electronic states occurs instantly in two-state model systems, here the authors show that real-world systems with coupling to additional states can exhibit measu...

(2/2) using attosecond spectroscopy supported by quantum-chemical calculations.

Read the article in Nature Communications here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

See also the summary post by @Hans Jakob Wörner: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

@ethz.ch

(1/2) The groundbreaking study of Danylo Matselyusk, Florian Rott, Thomas Schnappinger, Pengju Zhang, Zheng Li, Jeremy Richardson, Regina de Vivie-Riedle, and Hans Jakob Wörner proposes a novel understanding of fundamental quantum-dynamical processes,

Hertha Sponer in the lab. Credit: Science History Images/Alamy Stock Photo.

A substantial number of female physicists in the first half of the 20th century contributed to quantum physics. For the history of physics to properly recognize their work, new approaches are needed, argues Andrea Reichenberger in Nature Reviews Physics. go.nature.com/41mjQuJ #WomeninSTEM ⚛️ 🧪

Transferring Knowledge from MM to QM: A Graph Neural Network-Based Implicit Solvent Model for Small Organic Molecules The conformational ensemble of a molecule is strongly influenced by the surrounding environment. Correctly modeling the effect of any given environment is, hence, of pivotal importance in computationa...

Read the innovative article "Transferring Knowledge from MM to QM: A Graph Neural Network-Based Implicit Solvent Model for Small Organic Molecules" by Paul Katzberger, Felix Pultar, and Professor Sereina Riniker in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation:
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

100 years of #quantum mechanics

#OnThisDay in 1925, in a letter to Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg revealed his new ideas, which were to revolutionise physics.

Read more: home.cern/news/news/ph...

Precision Spectroscopy Reaffirms Gap Between Theory and Experiment New physics may explain discrepant values for the ionization energy of a metastable state of helium.

(3/3) Read a summary in Viewpoint Physics: physics.aps.org/articles/v18...

Read the full article in Physical Review Letters: journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

@apsphysics.bsky.social

(2/3) The disagreement is puzzling because the calculations feature converged relativistic and quantum-electrodynamics corrections as well as finite-nuclear-size and nuclear-polarization effects.

(1/3) In a series of high-precision experiments, Gloria Clausen and Professor Frédéric Merkt showed a 9 sigma discrepancy between theory and experiment in the ionization energy of the metastable triplet state of helium-3.

(2/2) Co-authors from IMPS @ethz.ch: Thomas Weymuth, Moritz Bensberg, Raphael T. Husistein, Mihael Erakovic and Marco Eckhoff and Professor Markus Reiher.

(1/2) "How to use quantum computers for biomolecular free energies" - Read the latest publication by a team of quantum researchers from @ucph.bsky.social, @mit.edu and @novonordisk.bsky.social and @ethz.ch - including these members of the Institute of Molecular Physical Science (IMPS) @ethz.ch :

Read about the TOL on the LinkedIn page of the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB): www.linkedin.com/posts/eth-d-...

Efficient Multistate Free-Energy Calculations with QM/MM Accuracy Using Replica-Exchange Enveloping Distribution Sampling Calculating free-energy differences using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations is an important task in computational chemistry. In practice, the accuracy of the results is limited by model approximatio...

Read the latest article by DomenPregeljc, Ramon Hügli, and Professor Sereina Riniker about "Efficient Multistate Free-Energy Calculations with QM/MM Accuracy Using Replica-Exchange Enveloping Distribution Sampling":
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Hier geht es zum Bericht der begeisterten Klasse: www.ksmg.ch/nachricht-le...

Schulklasse auf Campus Hönggerberg

Besuch der Kreisschule Mittelgösgen bei Professor Roland Riek und seiner Forschungsgruppe: Die Klasse P2c erhielt Einblick in den Alltag der Professor:innen, Forscher:innen und Student:innen an der ETH, durfte verschiedene Experimente im Labor durchführen und an einer Chemievorlesung teilnehmen.

Eschenmoser Symposium 2025

✨TODAY: Don't miss the "Organic Chemistry Frontiers Symposium" in celebration of Albert Eschenmoser's 100th birthday, organized by the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at @ethz.ch!
For further information: chab.ethz.ch/en/research/...

Hilfsassistent:in für Vorlesung in Physikalischer Chemie (m/w/d)

📣⚡Wir suchen Hilfsassistent:innen für die Vorlesung "Physikalische Chemie IV: Magnetische Resonanz" im Herbstsemester 2025 !
Weitere Informationen hier: jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...
Und hier: chab.ethz.ch/forschung/in...

@chemistryworld.com

Microwaves’ non-thermal effects on a chemical reaction demonstrated for first time Molecular beam experiments shift reaction rate by manipulating reactant's quantum state

Read also the article in Chemistry World ⚡
www.chemistryworld.com/news/microwa...

Teaching Assistant for a Bridging Course Project in Refugee Camps

WANTED: Teaching Assistant for Bridging Course Project in Refugee Camps !
Details in the job ad: jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

Tag der offenen Laboratorien (TOL) Seit 2012 lädt das Departement für Chemie und Angewandte Biowissenschaften (D-CHAB) einmal jährlich zum „Tag der offenen Laboratorien

(3/3) Programm und Anmeldung: chab.ethz.ch/outreach/oef...

(2/3) Unter anderem mit Vortrag von Prof. Sereina Riniker zu "Molekulardymanik: Trickfilme mit Atomen" und mit Laborstationen der physikalischen Chemie zu "Big magnets - zu Besuch bei den weltstärksten Dauermagneten" und "Wie man Aerosole mit Lasern einfängt und schweben lässt"!

Flyer zum Tag der offenen Laboratorien

(1/3) "Tag der offenen Laboratorien" für Lehrpersonen und Schüler:innen am 4. Juni 2025 im D-CHAB, ETH Zürich (@ethzurich.bsky.social) !