Dr. Zlatko Janeba earned his PhD (Chemistry) in 2001 from the Institute of Chemical Technology Prague & the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) in Prague. He underwent postdoctoral training with Prof. Morris J. Robins (Brigham Young University) and Prof. Paul F. Torrance (Northern Arizona University) and spent 3 years as a senior scientist at Moravek Biochemicals Inc in California. Since 2016, he is the head of the Senior Research Group at IOCB. His main interest is organic & medicinal chemistry, primarily design and synthesis of modified nucleos(t)ides with a wide range of biological properties (antiviral, anticancer, anti-parasitic).

Pathogens such as Plasmodium and Trypanosoma species are unable to synthesize guanine, adenine hypoxanthine or xanthine. Therefore, they rely on the salvage of these purine nucleobases and their nucleosides from the host cell to synthesize the purine nucleoside monophosphates required for DNA/RNA production. Key enzymes in this pathway are purine phosphoribosyltransferases (PRTs), including 6-oxopurine PRTs and adenine PRTs. Acyclic nucleoside phosphonates (ANPs) are antimetabolites able to inhibit these enzymes and prodrugs of some of these inhibitors kill parasites in culture. Design and synthesis of novel types of ANPs will be presented. Some of the ANPs are the most potent inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax 6-oxopurine PRTs and the most potent inhibitors of two Trypanosoma brucei (Tbr) 6-oxopurine PRTs yet discovered, with K_i values as low as 2 nM

Dr. Dusan Bratko obtained PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Ljubljana and is currently a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He previously held positions at the Department of Chemistry, University of Ljubljana, and in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley. His research concerns statistical mechanics and molecular modeling of liquids, solutions, colloids and interfacial phenomena of interest in nanoscience, energy, and materials engineering.

Compression of water in a hydrophobic porous medium enables the conversion of mechanical work to interfacial free energy as a novel mechanism of energy storage The work performed to secure infiltration is recovered when relaxed pressure results in spontaneous expulsion. The difference between infiltration and expulsion pressures due to possible cycle hysteresis determines the efficiency of the process in eventual applications. Using Open Ensemble molecular simulations, we explore the effect of the medium porosity on the delayed expulsion to identify pore sizes with minimal hysteresis and essentially complete energy recovery. The regime supporting the liquidspring behavior combines strong liophobicity with moderate steric exclusion characteristic of molecular-size pores. Our in silico modeling complements laboratory insights guiding the synthesis of nanoporous materials with high energy density and near-reversible operation

Prof. Etgar was the first to demonstrate the possibility to work with the perovskite as a light harvester and hole conductor in the solar cell which results in one of the pioneer publications in this field. Recently Prof. Etgar won the prestigious Krill prize from the Wolf foundation. Etgar’s research group focuses on the development of innovative solar cells. Prof. Etgar is researching new excitonic solar cells structures/architectures while designing and controlling the inorganic light harvester structure and properties to improve the photovoltaic parameters.
Lioz Etgar obtained his Ph.D. (2009) at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology and completed post-doctoral research with Prof. Michael Grätzel at EPFL, Switzerland. In his post-doctoral research, he received a Marie Curie Fellowship and won the Wolf Prize for young scientists.
Since 2012, he has been a senior lecturer in the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University. In 2017 he received an Associate Professor position.

In low dimensional systems, stability of excitons in quantum wells is greatly enhanced due to the confined effect and the coulomb interaction. The exciton binding energy of the typical 2D organic-inorganic perovskites is up to 300 meV and their self-assembled films exhibit bright photoluminescence at room temperature.

In this lecture I will show a new diammonium spacer molecule with hydroxyl functional groups forming Dion-Jacobson perovskite. Polarization modulation infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy reveal hydrogen bonding between the iodide to the spacer molecule and in between the OH groups.  As a result, we were able to demonstrate n=5 low dimensional perovskite solar cell (LDPSC) with efficiency of 10%. Photoconductivity measurements and scanning tunneling spectroscopy draw the band structure of this low dimensional perovskite (LDP) revealing in-gap states adjacent to the conduction band edge, consistent with Shockley-Reed-Hall modeling of the temperature-dependent photoconductivity. The LDPSC based on the diammonium spacer H₃N-C₄H₆(OH)₂-NH₃ shows enhanced stability under relative humidity of more than 50% over 1030 hours. Evaluating the mechanism of the cell shows a misalignment of the hole selective contact with the LDP. Improving this interface can increase further the photovoltaic performance demonstrating the potential of this new type of diammonium spacer in LDP. 

Dr. Frank Gupton is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering. He is the Floyd D. Gottwald Chair of Pharmaceutical Engineering and also serves as Department Chair of the Chemical and Life Science Engineering Department. His thirty-year industrial career centered on the development and commercialization of chemical processes for pharmaceutical applications. Dr. Gupton’s research group is currently focused on the development of continuous processing technology to facilitate the discovery, development and commercialization of drug products. Prior to joining the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Gupton served as the Executive Director of North American Process Development for Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and led the commercialization of the widely prescribed HIV drug nevirapine.  Dr. Gupton received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Richmond and graduate degrees in organic chemistry from Georgia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Dr. Gupton’s research efforts have focused on streamlining pharmaceutical processes, particularly in the area of active ingredients, by employing the principles of process intensification which include the use of innovative chemistry, novel continuous manufacturing platforms, and new and more efficient catalysts for pharmaceutical applications.  The research group’s efforts are guided and driven based on both financial and economic impact that can be derived from this effort.  Dr. Gupton is the recipient of the 2018 American Chemical Society Award for Affordable Green Chemistry, and in the same year, he received the Presidential Award for Green Chemistry.  In 2019 he received the Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry and Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Round Table.  These awards were associated with Professor Gupton’s work on the development of a highly efficient process to produce nevirapine, a first-line treatment in HIV therapy.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the supply chain vulnerabilities created from outsourcing activities that have adversely impacted virtually every aspect of the global economy. Dr. Gupton will discuss work by the Medicines for All Institute that is focused on improving access to essential medications across a broad range of disease states including HIV, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and COVID-19. This work highlights the need for multidisciplinary teams working together to address these fundamental health issues that impact all of us

H. N. Miras is associate professor in Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. His research is focused on the discovery of simple preparation routes to metal oxide/chalcoxide-based composite functional materials as well as the understanding of fundamental processes in the self-assembly of supramolecular clusters and molecular nanomaterials with modular magnetic, redox, electronic, conductive and catalytic properties

Exponential population growth, along with the scale and nature of energy consumption habits, is a rapidly growing social issue as the global energy demand intensifies our reliance on dwindling fossil fuel reserves with unprecedented environmental consequences. Therefore, growing pressure to pursue alternative energy sources that are both clean and renewable poses a critical challenge to the scientific community. Our work explores new approaches to tuning redox active immobilized molecular metal-chalcoxide electrocatalysts by controlling the chalcogen or metal stoichiometry and explore critical aspects of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here I will discuss the main findings unveiled by a combination of experiment and theory that pave the way and for the design of next-generation noble metal free HER catalysts. 

Dr. Peng Zhang (1980) obtained his PhD from the China University of Petroleum. He has engaged in dehydrogenation & reforming catalyst and process of petrochemicals for more than 16 years. Dr. Zhang innovatively discovered high performance zeolite-type environmentally friendly reforming catalysts, which can avoid chlorine loss and equipment corrosion of traditional commercial alumina-type catalysts. He is a senior engineer and inventor on more than 40 patents. Dr. Zhang has the honorary title of Science and Technology Young Talent of PetroChina Petrochemical Research Institute.

Catalytic reforming is a refining process that produces aromatics, high-octane gasoline and hydrogen through the rearrangement of hydrocarbons. The commercial reforming catalyst is alumina with element Cl and highly dispersed Pt. Although this catalyst has been widely used, the element Cl is easy to drain. It not only causes equipment corrosion, but also needs continuous chlorine supplementation to maintain acidity. Therefore, zeolitic catalysts with sufficient acidity and without chlorine supplementation have attracted wide attention. In my research, it was found that a newly developed zeolite catalyst, Pt/CeY-EI, exhibits high activity at low temperature of 450°C and even higher than commercial catalysts at industrial conditions of 490°C. Therefore, the new zeolite catalyst has high application value and prospect.

Kevin Kou is Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside since 2018. In 2009, he began PhD studies in asymmetric transition metal catalysis with Vy Dong at the University of Toronto, and in 2012, moved to UC Irvine with the group. From 2016–2018, he pursued post-doctoral training at UC Berkeley with Richmond Sarpong targeting the total synthesis of complex diterpenoid alkaloids. At UC Riverside, his group seeks to advance synthetic strategies that are amenable to the synthesis of bioactive molecules.

Electron-rich alkenes such as silyl enol ethers have tremendously impacted synthetic organic chemistry through the Mukaiyama aldol, Rubottom, Saegusa–Ito, and metal-catalyzed α-arylation reactions. Their use in the emerging field of C–H bond functionalization, however, is underexplored. Through oxidative Rh(III)-catalysis, we implement silyl enol ethers in C–H functionalization and demonstrate complementary reactivity with precedented and isolated examples of electron-rich alkenes. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest a Rh(III)/Rh(IV)/Rh(II) pathway that overcomes the barrier associated with C(sp²)–C(sp³) reductive eliminations. This strategy is being applied to the concise syntheses of bioactive isoquinoline natural products

Dr. Chau-Ming So is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his B.Sc. (1st class honor) from PolyU in 2006. He pursued his postgraduate study at the same institution and obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2010. In 2012-2013, he moved to Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) as the postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Tamio Hayashi’s research group. So’s research interests focus on the development of ligands and their application in transition metalcatalyzed chemo-/regio-/enantioselective reactions. He has published 62 papers in well-recognized SCI journals and licensed several patents.

Aryl bromides, chlorides, and triflates are the most widely used electrophiles in pharmaceutical, industrial, and routine synthesis. However, having the approximate reactivity order of C−I> C−BrC−OTf>> C−Cl, we are still always struggling with multiple factors and drawbacks during the use of multiple(pseudo)halides. For each substrate, we need to carefully consider and perform tedious trial and error of the use of ligand, base, solvent, temperature, and steric and electronic biases of the substrate itself. As ligands are indispensable factors in cross-coupling reactions, developing the appropriate ligands that can easily alternate the reactivity sequence is an extremely attractive strategy to align with the ideal synthetic pathways. In this study, we have newly designed and developed a series of phosphine ligands with a C2-alkyl group on the indole ring and realized the chemoselective cross-coupling processes of polyhalogenated aryl triflates (e.g., Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction). The Pd/SelectPhos system showed excellent chemoselectivity toward the Ar−Cl bond in the presence of the Ar−OTf bond with broad substrate scopes and excellent product yields. The chemoselective reactions are easily be scaled up to the gram scale. Especially in the SuzukiMiyaura reactions, the use of parts per million levels of Pd catalyst (as low as 10 ppm Pd) is achieved. A further mechanistic investigation with the X-ray crystallographic data and the computational studies suggested that the methine hydrogen and the steric hindrance offered by the C2-alkyl group play a key role in reactivity and chemoselectivity. 

Dr. Chithra Mohan received her Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Ibnusaud. She is as an Assistant Professor at the School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. In 2021, she joined as a member in Organic Chemistry Division, and Professional Relations Division (Women Chemists) of American Chemical Society (ACS). Her research interests encompass synthesis of enantiomerically pure compounds from Natural Product starting materials, total synthesis of natural products, the synthesis of complex organic molecules, and medicinally pertinent molecules via photoredox catalysis

Enantiomerically pure compounds molecules, either obtained directly from nature or through chemical modification of the naturally occurring molecules, play a vital role in pursuing pharmaceutical and synthetic organic chemistry. Among various strategies toward synthesizing enantiopure compounds, the chiral pool approach is desirable due to the assured optical purity of the target molecule and economic viability. Several tropical plants are rich sources of structurally simple chiral 2-hydroxycitric acids. Out of the four possible optical isomers, the (2S,3S)- diastereomer garcinia acid and the (2S,3R)-diastereomer hibiscus acid have been isolated as their γbutyrolactones in optically pure form in kilogram quantities. The two stereogenic centers in these γbutyrolactones have structural and stereochemical features that relate to several small bioactive molecules of synthetic or natural origin. Accordingly, the chiral lactones of garcinia and hibiscus acids bearing chemically amenable functional groups could be an ideal choice for the diversityoriented construction of several bioactive compounds such as (-)- and (+)-crispine A, (+)- and (−)- harmicine. Accordingly, the uniqueness of relatively cheap, naturally occurring chiral 2- hydroxycitric acid lactones as Chiron had demonstrated by constructing some important organic small-molecules of drug-likeness, which are otherwise difficult to synthesize. 

Diogo M.F. Santos is an Invited Assistant Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (ULisboa, Portugal) and Researcher in the Center of Physics and Engineering of Advanced Materials, studying electrodes and membranes for application in direct liquid fuel cells. D.M.F. Santos has authored 120 journal papers and 90 conference proceedings, and his current h index is 31. He is on the “World’s Top 2% Scientists list” of Stanford University for the impact in 2020. D.M.F. Santos has presented more than 60 oral communications and 80 posters at international conferences. His main research interests are related to electrochemical energy conversion and storage.

The high cost of platinum-group metals is driving researchers to find alternative catalysts for rechargeable metal-air battery (RMAB) electrodes. Polyoxometalates (POMs), usually Keggin type, consist of one tetrahedron unit with a central heteroatom (P, Si), four oxygen atoms, and twelve octahedral MO₆ units (M = Mo, W, V), linked to one another by shared oxygen atoms. For RMAB use, POM metals are usually replaced by transition metals and layered on carbonate or silica frameworks to decrease solubility, increase surface area, and improve catalytic activity. Herein, we prepared composite materials based on POMs containing transition metals, Co, Mn, Fe, Cu and Ni, and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). XRD and FTIR analysis confirmed the formation of POM/rGO composites. The performance of the POM/rGO electrodes for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) (the reactions occurring at the positive electrode of RMABs) was assessed by cyclic voltammetry with a rotating disc electrode. All materials showed activity for ORR, as evidenced by a cathodic peak at 0 rpm corresponding to O₂ reduction. Tafel analysis revealed ORR Tafel slopes ranging from -0.154 to -0.180 V dec^-1. The number of transferred electrons during ORR was calculated using the Koutecký-Levich equation and found to be close to 2, indicating the two-electron pathway. Additionally, the Ni-containing POM/rGO composite showed the highest current density and lowest Tafel slope for OER, demonstrating good bifunctional activity for RMABs

Dr. Nutan Sharma is an Assistant Professor in Department of Chemistry at Shree Guru Gobind Singh Tricentenary (SGT) University, Gurugram, India. She is a Principal Investigator in SERBTARE Project awarded by Science & Enginnering Research Board. She has 12 years of research experience and her areas of interest includes total synthesis of natural products, green chemistry, and fluorinated chemistry. She has established her own research group and currentyl supervising 4 research students. She has published 17 research papers in International Journals of repute and is a member of prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry also. 

Marine ascidians represent the most chemically abundant group of organisms and distinctly rich sources of secondary metabolites like alkaloids and cyclic peptides which make them a reservoir of potential drug leads in various biological areas such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities. Herdmania momus (order Pleurogona, family Pyuridae) despite being a solitary ascidian of wide natural occurrence in the Indo Pacific Ocean has only been studied for few chemical investigations which resulted in the isolation and structural elucidation of four new bioactive metabolites Herdmanines A–D. Out of all these, Herdmanine D showed adequate antioxidant activities with IC50 value of 9 μM by suppressive effect on nitric oxide (NO) production in LPS-activated murine macrophage cells. In spite of its biological relenevce, to our surprise there are no reports of synthetic efforts towards total synthesis of this natural entity. Considering this lacuna as an opportunity, we reported the first scalable regioselective total synthesis of Herdmanine D through retrosynthetic approach and further constructed their ester derivatives to establish SAR studies. Presence of a rare 6-bromo-5-hydroxyindole moiety of marine organisms makes this accomplishment unique. SAR studies can be extended on this molecule due to presence of various convertible functionalities such as -NH2, -COOH, -Br, -OH groups.

Xiaoyu Chen is PhD candidate in Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research interest is structural analysis and dynamical behavior of biomolecules detected through solid-state nanopore. Besides, she is expertized in solid-state nanopore fabrication and characterization, and laser coupled solid-state nanopore instruments.

Tetrahedral DNA nanostructure (TDN) is an interesting type of DNA origami formed by self-assembling specific DNA polymers, which is valuable for bio-sensing applications. Detecting their structure and dynamic behaviors in micro-fluid channels with nanopore techniques have drawn great attention. Significant ionic current fluctuation has been observed in our experiment, which shows interesting features and desires reasonable understanding. We examine the characteristics in the current traces by theoretical simulation and analysis with the experimental data. The nature of random rotation and weak influence by torque field are revealed for TDN translocating through the solid-state nanopore.

Mariama R. S. Dias is an Assistant Professor at the University of Richmond. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from The Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil, in 2014. During her Ph.D., she held visiting research appointments at the Ohio University, The Free University of Berlin, and The University of Wuerzburg. Before arriving at UR, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland, holding the Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellowship. Dr. Dias lab currently research topics that focus on metallic, oxide, and semiconductor nanostructures with potential applications in optics, plasmonics, nanoelectronics, and energy harvesting devices.

The use of alloyed materials with different chemical compositions is a promising route to improve the performance of sensors, energy harvesting devices, and optical components due to their ability to engineer intrinsic physical properties such as permittivity. Traditional material synthesis and characterization methods use repeated rounds to determine the best composition for a particular application. Alternatively, computational modeling has enabled the expansion of databases that cover the calculated properties of known and hypothetical systems. Nevertheless, evaluating the alloys' optical response by DFT with adjustable smearing parameters for inter-and intraband transitions is time-consuming. We design an artificial neural network trained to predict an alloyed system's permittivity and other physical quantities to overcome this challenge. We fabricated thin films of the materials with different compositions and measured their optical response to confirm our prediction. We find that the accuracy of the ML is very high, and the time response is relatively short. For example, we show that Al-Au alloys outperform their pure counterparts in sensitivity for surface plasmon polariton resonant (SPR) sensors, with Au0.85Al0.15 being the best candidate for replacing pure gold in SPR sensors

Ying Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at University of Louisville, USA. She obtained her PhD in Biophysics and Computational Biology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008. Following her postdoctoral training at Columbia University, she started her independent research group at University of Louisville in 2014. The main focus of her current research is to understand the functional roles of conformational dynamics in enzymes using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and other biophysical techniques. She has also published work on developing NMR methods for studying membrane proteins and protein dynamics.

Deubiquitinases (DUBs) are a family of proteases involved in regulating protein degradation and many other biological processes in eukaryotes. Misregulation and malfunction of DUBs have been implicated in human diseases, including neurodegeneration, cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. DUBs are emerging drug targets actively pursued in both industry and academia. I will present our recent work on defining the functional role of conformational dynamics in deubiquitinases using solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, in combination with other biochemical techniques. Our studies showed that deubiqutinase A (DUBA) is a highly dynamic enzyme that displays coupled motions among most of the structural elements on the sub-millisecond time scale. We found that phosphorylation of DUBA modulates the equilibrium between multiple conformers and thereby activates the enzyme despite minimal structural changes induced by phosphorylation. Our study provides important insights into the activation mechanism of DUBA and also represents the first detailed study of conformational dynamics at atomic resolution in the DUB family.

Amit Nag is an Associate Professor in Chemistry, at BITS-Pilani Hyderabad Campus. He received his Ph.D. in 2009 from IIT Kanpur, India under the supervision of Professor Debabrata Goswami on femtosecond laser chemistry. He worked as a Post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine, U.S.A with Professor Ara Apkarian on scan-probe microscopy and at the Department Chemie und CeNS, LMU, Munich, Germany with Professor Achim Hartschuh on plasmonics and Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. He has successfully completed sponsored projects funded by BITS-Pilani, DST and CSIR. His research interests include Nonlinear laser spectroscopy, Scanning-probe microscopy, Plasmonics, Carbon Dots, Biophysical chemistry.

In recent times, plasmonic nanomaterials have demonstrated tremendous research outcome due to their excellent and unique optical properties. Noble metal nanostructures have the ability to confine incident radiation and generate massive amount of electromagnetic field in their neighborhood, which can enhance the Fluorescence and Raman signals of analyte molecules near to the surface, leading to the phenomenon of Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) or Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF). SERS and MEF find important analytical applications in diverse areas, for e.g. forensic science, food and environment safety, biomolecular analysis, cancer diagnosis, sensing etc. including exploration of single molecules [i.e., single-molecule SERS (SMSERS)]. Moreover, for better cancer treatment, it is crucial to develop brightly fluorescent photosensitizer using MEF with efficient metal-enhanced singlet oxygen generation (ME-SOG) upon light irradiation. Recent activities from our group on the development of plasmonic nanomaterials and their application in detection of important analytes and as nanomedicine, will be discussed.

Gyan Modi is assiait professor at Dept of Pharm. Eng & Technology, IIT (BHU), Varanasi. His laboratory has received several research projects funded from SERB, and ICMR, India. He is the recipient of several awards.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by gradual memory impairment. A definitive AD diagnosis still relies on the postmortem analysis of the diseased brain. Amyloid β (Aβ) aggregates start appearing several years before the onset of the symptoms of the disease. Our laboratory has been carrying out systematic structural modification in natural products to develop novel near-infrared fluorescent (NIRF) probes for the early diagnosis of AD. The lead molecules I3, I8, and I16 have shown promising and selective Aβ aggregation detection ability in different AD models.

We have also identified novel multifunctional agents that provide neuroprotection and neurorestorative in various AD models. Interestingly, F24, and G2 compounds have shown potent neuroprotection ability in SHSY5Y cell line, transgenic AD drosophila, and AD mice models.

Maria Manuel Marques is an Assistant Professor with Habilitation in Chemistry at the Chemistry Department of the NOVA School of Science and Technology. She received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 2001 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. S. Prabhakar from New University of Lisbon. From 2001 to 2003 she joined the group of Prof. Dr. J. Mulzer at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Vienna, as a postdoctoral research fellow. In 2003, she returned to - New University of Lisbon (Requimte) as a research fellow and invited professor. In 2016 she obtained her Habilitation in Chemistry and became assiatant Professor in 2018 at the same Department. Her research encompasses the development of new synthetic and sustainable methodologies involving metal-catalyzed reactions towards bioactive compounds, in particular heterocyclic molecules.

According to 59% of unique small-molecule drugs approved by U.S. FDA contain a nitrogen heterocycle. Among N-heterocycles, azaindoles are a privileged structure, and have enticed the interest of the scientific community for their physicochemical and pharmacological properties with potential applications in the field of medicinal chemistry. Our group has been focused on metal-catalyzed reactions for the preparation of bioactive heterocycles, and on the search for the straightforward synthesis of azaindoles. In particular, we have been exploring one-pot methodologies using different metal-catalysts. Herein we will present our latest achievements on the one-pot reactions, and simple protocols towards not easy to make heterocycles.

The authors acknowledge Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, PTDC/QUI-QOR/0712/2020.

Dr. Cherie S. Tan is an Associate Professor of Medical College at the Tianjin University. Her undergraduate training was in analytical chemistry with Professor Janusz Pawliszyn at the University of Waterloo.  After obtaining her Bachelor’s Degree in Canada, she spent four years working in the biotechnology industry in San Francisco Bay Area. During that time, she developed her skills as an associate at the DMPK department (Drug Metabolism Pharmacokinetics) at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Then, to further understand the expression of cancer-related genes and develop an analytical method for fast screening of the targeted genes, she pursued her Ph.D. degree in a Nanopore Sequencing of DNA Damage group, operated by Professor Cynthia J. Burrows and Professor Henry S. White. Following a postdoctoral appointment at the same group, she began her academic career as an associate professor at Tianjin University in 2019. Her research interests are in nanopore sequencing, biomarkers, biosensors, point-of-care testing POCT sensor development, bioinformatics, population genetics, epigenomic analysis, et. al.

Base modifications play an essential role in cellular function, and the abnormal expressions of base modifications are associated with numerous diseases. Unfortunately, existing detection methods have difficulty obtaining sequence information of various modified nucleobases at the single-molecule resolution. Label-free single-molecule sequencing technology using biological nanopores can direct sequence canonical nucleobases. However, the discrimination of hundreds of noncanonical nucleobase modifications at the single-molecule resolution is still challenging. Herein, we introduced the recent advances in detecting nucleobase modifications using biological nanopores from nucleic acid translocation controlling, confinement effects on nucleobase discrimination, and applications of nanopore sequencers for modification detection.

Alakesh received his Ph.D. degree from IIT Kanpur, India working with Prof. Vinod K. Singh and did his Postdoctoral studies with Prof. Richmond Sarpong, at the University of California at Berkeley, CA, USA. He is working as a Professor of Chemistry at IISER Bhopal since January, 2018. His research group is actively involved in the target oriented total syntheses of various architecturally complex and biologically active natural products. In May, 2019, he moved to IISER Kolkata as a Professor and working in Organic Synthesis directed for the total syntheses of architecturally intriguing and biologically relevance alkaloids.

Asymmetric construction of dimeric hexahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]indole alkaloids by using non-racemic catalysts are very challenging. Catalytic enantioselective processes could provide access to both antipodes of natural products just by changing other enantiomer of catalysts. In this regard, dimeric hexahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]indole alkaloids (aka cyclotryptamine alkaloids) remain one of the most fascinating targets which continue to attract tremendous synthetic interest. In these alkaloids, two hexahydropyrrolo[2,3-b]indole scaffolds are linked with a labile C3a–C3a′ σ-bond, thereby creating vicinal all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers that pose a significant synthetic challenge. These are found in a number of different types of plants and animals and are associated with a wide array of biological activities. We have envisioned of a catalytic asymmetric one-pot sequential C-C bond formationfor the construction of these alkaloids. We have achieved excellent enantioselectivity (up to 96% ee) and excellant diastereocontrol (up to >20:1).

S Jhaumeer Laulloo has a Personal Chair in Organic Chemistry at  University of Mauritius. She is recogized nationally and internationally for her research contributions and achievements in Organic and Surfactant Chemistry and aslo  Organometallic compounds. She is also interested in Forensic Science. She has published over 80 papers in peer reviewed journals.

Diaryl disulfide scaffold is considered among one of the most momentous structural motifs in chemistry that have sparked a growing interest among researchers due to the interesting biological properties that their derivatives possess. Multiple studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of diaryl disulfide compounds as promising anticancer, herbicidal  and antibacterial agents. Studies carried out by our group have showed that diaryl disulfide derivatives with varying alkyl chain length (C8-C16) possess interesting physicochemical properties and biological activities such as antibacterial activities. The antibacterial activity and serum binding affinity were influenced by the lipophilicity of the molecule. The C10/C12 alkyl chains showed optimum activity as a result of an ideal hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance that enhanced interaction and penetration of the molecule  inside the  bacterial membrane. An increase in chain length of the disulfide derivatives caused an increase in their affinity with Bovine serum albumin (BSA) up to a chain length of C12 called the cut off point, above which the binding ability decreased. The favourable interaction of these disulfide derivatives with BSA were mainly via van der Waals' forces and hydrogen bonding. Moreover, diaryl sulfide ligands possessing flexible S spacer groups between the two aryl rings can adopt different conformation when coordinated to metal centers giving rise to mononuclear, binuclear or polynuclear complexes. The co-ordination of the sulfur atoms to metals occurs either with or without the S-S cleavage. Many of these metal complexes exhibit promising antibacterial and antioxidant activities as well as DNA interactions which are due to the presence of larger planar geometries and S–S linkages.