Supramolecular Chemistry research head is Dr. Jasper Adamson and current projects are as follows:

1. Functional cavitands for drug discovery and delivery, PSG400

Project duration: 01.01.20 – 31.12.23

Principal Investigator: Dr. Jasper Adamson

Known macrocycles with aromatic monomers, including pillararenes, calixarenes and resorcinarenes, primarily consist of four monomer units with the host-guest chemistry of larger macrocycles being poorly understood, owing to their flexible nature. Due to the small cavity size, the utility of existing systems has been limited to host-guest complexation with small structures, such as metal cations and small organic molecules. In this project, we aim to synthesize new families of cavitands, based on aromatic macrocycles with eight monomer units that are optimized for complexation with larger guest molecules. We will perform experiments to understand the molecular recognition performance with selected drug molecules, including opioids and Clonidine, Lamivudine and Amiloride and further study utilisation of the new macrocycles in enzyme assays. We also propose to perform cytotoxicity studies with human cells as a first step towards clinical trials.

Link to ETIS here.

You can find the research group website here.

The research group works closely with the group of Professor Virgil Percec at the University of Pennsylvania.

Finished projects here.