News and updates

2024-11-07: Fredrik was asked to contribute a few lines in Matter’s “35 under 35” list about the group’s work in solving challenges in biomaterials using the mechanical bond.

2024-10-31: Another major milestone for the lab with the publication of our first independent research paper in Chemical Science. Here we show how dynamic covalent boronic ester chemistry can be used both to make and modify rotaxanes with some very interesting properties. Massive congratulations to Jingjing, Marius, Satty, Daniel and Chris, time to break out the whiskey!

2024-10-29: Super happy to announce that the group is moving across Europe! We have gradually started to relocate the group to the University of Warwick, UK! The KTH lab will continue to operate for a lab, but in the meantime look out for announcements of new positions in Warwick very soon! Watch this space 😁!

2024-08-09: Very sad to say goodbye to Jingjing who is leaving us after 2.5 awesome years together! Jingjing really pioneered our work on dynamic covalent chemistry for assembling rotaxanes, and there’s plenty more cool stuff coming out in the near future from his incredibly productive time here. Delighted to have had you here Jingjing, and best of luck in Shanghai!

2024-07-29: Huge welcome to Imre Küranel who joins us for a summer internship exchange from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. Lots of luck in the lab Imre!

2024-06-20: Today, Ming-Tai defended his MSc thesis on a new way to make boronic acid rotaxanes. Ming-Tai has been a true force of nature in the lab during his time in the group, and we wish him the very best of luck in the future! Congrats again!

2024-06-18: We welcome Huseynagha Abasov to to group who joins us for a summer internship exchange from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey. Good luck in the lab and so happy to have you here Huseyn!

2024-04-22: This new paper with the De Bo group on breaking of molecular knots (from Fredrik’s postdoc days in Manchester) just appeared online in Nature Chemistry. These really exciting results puts a number on how much molecular strands are weakened by knots, yielding some interesting insights for the mechanical stability of longer polymer chains. Huge congrats everyone and thanks for an amazing collaboration Min, Robbie, Luci, Guillaume and Dave!

2024-03-25: Daisy has just been selected for the CAS Future Leaders 2024 program!!!! Great recognition of an outstanding scientist, you rock Daisy!

2024-02-12: Fantastic news for the group, as Daisy was just awarded a prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on light-cleavable mechanically interlocked biomolecules here with us. Massive congratulations Daisy, so well-deserved and fantastic work!

2024-01-29: A warm welcome to Stan van Dooren, who is joining us as a BSc intern from Avans in the Netherlands. He will work on making and breaking mechanically interlocked bioactive molecules. Very nice to have you here Stan!

2024-01-16: Welcome to the group to Ming-Tai Lee, who join us for his MSc thesis on the topic of boronic acid-templated interlocked molecules. Great to have you here, and best of luck woith your thesis Ming-Tai!

2024-01-08: Big congratulations to Anja who got into the top 20 of Merck’s 2023 Compound Challenge. Huge achievement - great work!

2023-11-15: A huge welcome to Daisy Pooler who joins the group a a postdoctoral researcher! Daisy comes to us from PhD studies with Ben Feringa at University of Groningen, the Netherland, where she was developing novel light-driven rotary molecular motors. She will work with us on biocompatible and bioderived molecular machines, hopefully with some biomedical applications. Super nice to have you here Daisy :).

2023-10-27: Big day for the group - our first research paper is now out on ChemRxiv! Jingjing, Marius and Satty (together with our awesome collaborators from Berlin) have made rotaxanes from vicinal diols, using dynamic covalent boron chemistry. Fantastic work everyone!

2023-10-12: Pernilla just defended her MSc thesis on water-solubilizing rotaxane units with an excellent performance - many congratulations!

2023-08-15: Fredrik was asked to write a preview article about the lovely new molecular machine design from the Feringa group.

2023-07-01: We’re saying goodbye to Satyajit and Frantisek who have just left the group. Thank you very much for your valuable contributions, and we wish you the best of luck in your future.

2023-04-25: Fredrik just wrote a perspective review on the mechanical bond in biological systems together with fellow group leaders Charlie McTernan (Crick) and Sophie Beeren (DTU). An absolutely lovely writing experience and hopefully also a useful text for the community!

2023-02-15: Huge welcome to our new MSc students Frantisek Stara and Pernilla Öberg! Frantisek will work on new methods to release prodrugs based on mechanical bonds, while Pernilla will investigate protein-targeting rotaxanes. Looking forward to working with you guys!

2023-02-08: Really happy that our review article in EurJOC was chosen for the front cover. Congratulations again guys!

2023-01-26: We wrote a little highlight piece in Nature Chemistry on the fantastic mechanically interlocked nanocarbons from Ramesh Jasti and group! Congratulations both to Satty for the highlight and the Jasti team for a milestone publication in mechanically interlocked molecules.

2022-11-16: First paper from the group is now online - a wonderful milestone! Marius and Jingjing wrote this really nice perspective on dynamic covalent chemistry and mechanically interlocked molecules, fantastic work guys!

2022-09-07: Another new paper from Fredrik’s Manchester days on a very efficient synthesis strategy for molecular knots based on social self-sorting. Congratulations Zoe, Olivia, Elisabeth, Luci and Dave!

2022-08-29: Time to welcome Anja Ramström back as the first PhD student of the group! We’re delighted you’ve chosen to stay in the group Anja, and we’re looking forward to many years of cool research together :).

2022-08-25: Group activity: We went on a lovely forest hike followed by BBQ! great way to spent the last days of the (all too short) Swedish summer!

2022-08-22: Today we welcome Joonas Ryssy to the group as a new postdoctoral researcher. Joonas comes here straight from his PhD studies in out-of-equilibrium DNA nanotechnology at Aalto University in Finland. Here he will work on synthesis and microfabrication of new biocompatible polyrotaxanes as drug delivery systems. Great to have you here Joonas :).

2022-08-18: A shiny new review paper out from Fredrik’s postdoc with Dave Leigh in Manchester, just published in Chem. Soc. Rev. Here, we discuss the recent advances in the synthesis of molecular knots, and discuss and analyse what knotting is really good for at the molecular level. Congratulations Zoe, Steve, Dave, Luci and Liang.

2022-08-15: Today we welcome James “Jazzy” Foote as a visiting PhD student from Imperial College London. Jazzy is coming from the group of Molly Stevens where he is currently in his final year of PhD studies working on biosensing and bioelectronic materials. We look forward to a few weeks of fun discussions, exchange and rotaxane chemistry - so nice to have you here Jazzy :)!

2022-07-30: Today we said goodbye to Clarisse, who has done a spectacular job in our lab developing dual-function rotaxane stoppers for biological targeting. You’ll be deeply missed Clarisse!

2022-06-22: The group just visited the Swedish Chemical Society Meeting in Linköping and everyone showed their great work so far! Thanks a lot to all the interested people for lovely discussions, feedback and fun, and huge congratulations to Anja who snagged one of the coveted poster prizes with her cool luminescent rotaxanes.

2022-06-14: Massive congratulations to Anja Ramström who just defended her MSc thesis on rotaxane-based luminescent sensors! Excellent job from beginning to end from Anja!

2022-04-04: Today we welcome both Dr. Satyajit Das who joins us as a Wenner-Gren Postdoctoral Fellow and Clarisse Marin who joins for an MSc internship! Satyajit was previously in beautiful San Sebastian working on graphene nanoribbons with Prof. Aurelio Matteo-Alonso, and Clarisse joins us from University of Paris-Saclay where she’s studying molecular physicochemistry. Satyajit will work on new biocompatible polyrotaxane materials, while Clarisse will work on diagnostic rotaxanes with protein targeting functions. Very welcome to both of you from the whole goup :)!

2022-03-07: We are delighted to welcome Dr. Marius Gaedke to the group who will join us as an Olle Engkvist Foundation postdoc. Marius comes straight from Berlin where he did his PhD with Prof. Chris Schalley on redox-switchable rotaxanes. His work here is concerned with new methods of operating molecular machines in water, with the hope to use these systems for biosensors. Huge welcome Marius :)!

2022-03-04: New paper from Fredrik’s postdoc in Manchester, just published in Science! We used Vernier template synthesis to construct the largest and most complex molecular knots known to date - with a circumference length equivalent to over 120 peptide units! Congrats Zoe, Elisabeth, Luci, Joakim, Frank and Dave!

2022-02-21: A very big welcome to Dr. Jingjing Yu, who joins the group as a postdoc! Jingjing arrives from Turku in Finand where he previously worked on supramolecular biomaterials with Dr. Jianwei Li. He will work on developing new classes of biocompatible polyrotaxanes - very welcome Jingjing!

2022-02-02: Huge welcome to Anja Ramström, the very first member of the group to arrive in the labs! Anja will do her MSc thesis with us, and in her project she will study luminescent rotaxanes as biosensing. Very welcome Anja!

2022-01-20: The group has just received a generous equipment grant form the Magnus Bergvall Foundation which will be used to expand our instrument platform for studying the new biomaterials we’re trying to make! Huge thanks for the support!

2021-12-21: More christmas gifts! Together with the awesome Dr. Shyam N. Raja from the Department of Micro and Nanosystems at KTH we have been awarded a proof-of-concept grant from the KTH Life Science Platforms. Looking forward to testing our ideas for some cool single-molecule supramolecular biosensors.

2021-12-13: We have just been awarded two new grants - what a fantastic early christmas gift for the group!! Firstly, the lab has received a generous equipment grant from Stiftelsen Lars Hiertas Minne which will go to expanding our soft materials characterization platform. Secondly, Dr. Satyajit Das (from University of the Basque Country, POLYMAT group) has just been awarded a personal fellowship to join the group from the prestigious Wenner-Gren Foundations. Huge congratulations Satyajit, and we can’t wait to welcome you to the group in spring 2022!

2021-11-19: More funding success!! We have just been awarded a grant from the Carl Trygger Foundations for a postdoc to come and join us for our adaptive biomaterials project. Massive thanks for your support!

2021-11-15: The lab has been awarded a generous grant from the Olle Engkvist Foundations for a postdoctoral researcher to come and work here on our biomedical molecular machinery projects! Huge thanks!

2021-11-09: After two months of hard work we have finally rebuilt our own laboratory space, and the lab mascot (Mr. Racoon) has officially moved in. Hooray!

2021-11-04: Fredrik has been awarded a generous Establishment Grant from the Swedish Research Council! This funding will be integral in our aim to create artificial molecular machines for biomedical applications.

2021-09-01: The group has arrived at KTH! Now it is time to unpack lots and lots of boxes!