Wennemers Group

Our senior scientist and Branco Weiss fellow, @tomfialab.bsky.social, is starting his own lab at Masaryk University. 👏 Check him out. So proud of you, Tom!

Congratulations to @tomfialab.bsky.social, who was awarded the @experientiacz.bsky.social start-up grant to start his independent research group at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia with the project "Traceless Affinity Probes for Targeted Alteration of Proteoforms". Have a great start, Tom!

🚨New paper from our group! A clever use of salt bridges to crack a tough problem in collagen heterotrimer design! Hyperstable, minimal-length, and blunt-ended heterotrimers - out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! Congrats to @tomfialab.bsky.social and everyone involved. Check it out: 🔗tin.al/IQej5

This work used our open-source, modular photoreactor ETHos! 🛠️ It’s inexpensive, easy to build, adjustable, and ensures reproducibility. CAD files are freely available on GitHub. Check it out: 🔗 tin.al/t6fS

🚨 New preprint from our group! We report a photocatalytic, regiodivergent method to functionalize saturated N-heterocycles at the α- or β-position. The metal-free reaction runs in water with a flavin catalyst and gives rapid access to sought-after piperidines. Check it out here: 🔗 tin.al/DqxU

🚨 Happy to share a new preprint – our group’s first!
🔗 chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

We report a novel synthetic method to access cyclic ethers from diketones, powered by simple borane catalysts.

Thanks to the whole team for their excellent work!

Congratulations, Tobi!

Enantioselective Conjugate Addition of Aldehydes to Oxetane- and Azetidine-Containing Nitroolefins: An Entry to Spirocyclic Pyrrolidines Enantioselective amine-catalyzed conjugate additions of aldehydes to oxetane- and azetidine-containing nitroolefins afford γ-nitroaldehydes as key building blocks en route to spirocyclic oxetane/azetidine-pyrrolidines. The study provided insights into the stability and reactivity of these β,β-disubstituted nitroolefins and enabled the enantioselective synthesis of chiral oxetanes and azetidines in moderate-to-high yields and enantioselectivities. This approach expands synthetic access to medicinally relevant scaffolds and broadens the scope of enantioselective organocatalytic transformations.

Chiral spirocyclic oxetanes & azetidines synthesized by organocatalytic additions to strained nitroolefins—a practical route to medicinally relevant molecules.
🔗 pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Fluorescently labeled collagen model peptides are emerging as diagnostics for fibrosis and tissue repair. Our latest study highlights that careful selection of the fluorophore is essential when designing CMPs for such applications.

Now out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/4sbhdv95