Monday, 25 July 4:00pm – 5:00pm

This seminar will be delivered in Online Zoom Please email chemistry.researchsupport@sydney.edu.au for zoom link and password.

Speaker: A/Prof. Fredrik Schaufelberger; KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Host: Dr Jonathan Danon

Title: Integrating Mechanically Interlocked Molecules with (Bio)macromolecules

Abstract: Since their discovery in the 1960s, mechanically interlocked molecules have moved from molecular curiosities to practically useful compounds employed in a wide variety of real-life applications, from sensors to self-healing materials. Our group develops strategies for the formation of new mechanical bonds and employ these to construct stimuli-responsive and adaptive materials, especially so-called polyrotaxanes. We are working on the interface of supramolecular chemistry, nanomedicine and biomaterials, using the toolbox of synthetic organic chemistry to engineer new nanotechnology for improving biomedical diagnostics and therapeutics. We are especially interested in applying mechanically interlocked materials in biological settings, for example to create designer biomaterials where the mechanical bonds endow the system with unique properties.

In this talk, I will detail some of my adventures with entanglements and mechanical mechanical bonds over the last few years. Spanning work done at the University of Manchester, Imperial College London and KTH, I will show how we can use supramolecular coordination chemistry to synthesize well-defined entangled nanoobjects and mechanically interlocked materials. Furthermore, I will discuss some recent results on how entanglements affect the mechanical properties of polymers, and finally outline how entanglements can be useful in targeted drug delivery and bioimaging applications.

Biography: Fredrik Schaufelberger is assistant professor of supramolecular nanochemistry at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He obtained his undergraduate degree from at KTH and ETH Zürich (2007-2012), followed by PhD studies at KTH in the area of supramolecular and dynamic covalent chemistry (with Olof Ramström). Following his dissertation, he moved to the group of David A. Leigh at the Univerity of Manchester with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (2017-2020). In Manchester, he was studying functional molecular knots and chemically fuelled molecular assemblies such as rotaxanes. After a research stay with Molly M. Stevens at Imperial College London (2020-2021), where he was working on biosensing and drug delivery, he took up his current position. He has a huge passion for beautiful molecules such as knots, and is spending a lot of time thinking on how molecular machines can be integrated in both materials and living systems.