Title:    Engineering molecular shape with synthetic macromolecules

Time:    2025-10-09 10:00

Lecturer:  Prof. Ivan Huc

Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany

Venue:    Room 202, Lu-Jiaxi Building

Abstract：

Aromatic oligomers constitute a distinct and promising class of synthetic foldamers – oligomers that adopt stable folded conformations. Single helical structures are, to a large extent, predictable, show unprecedented conformational stability in essentially all solvents, and represent convenient building blocks to elaborate synthetic, very large (protein-sized) folded architectures. Solution phase synthesis gives access to aromatic amino acid monomers bearing all kinds of biogenic-like side chains, and solid phase synthesis of long oligomers has been automated. In some instances, protein-sized foldamers can even self-synthesize, that is, spontaneously emerge from their precursor monomer. Cavities can be designed within such synthetic molecules that enable them to act as artificial receptors and molecular motors. This lecture will give an overview of our current efforts to design foldamers in the size range of small proteins. It will highlight the benefits of foldamer macrocyclization to access to otherwise improbable molecular shapes and showcase key methodologies, e.g. solid phase synthesis, crystallogenesis, and single crystal x-ray diffraction.

Bio of Ivan Huc：

Ivan Huc has been since 2017 a full Professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (Munich, Germany). He obtained his doctorate from the University of Paris VI in 1994 for work performed jointly at Ecole Normale Supérieure (France) and MIT (USA). He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher and then as CNRS senior scientist at the University of Strasbourg until 1998, when he was appointed group leader at the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology at the University of Bordeaux. His group focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of aromatic foldamers and their applications including pharmacological aspects.