Congratulations to Dr. Kato Bredael, who successfully defended her PhD thesis on beta-lactams last week 🥳 Thanks to the jury members for their input, and to the team of Prof. Gobec (Ljubljana) for the collaboration! @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social #antibiotics

The first paper of Kato Bredael's PhD work on monocyclic β-lactams is published in 'Chemistry - an Asian Journal': doi.org/10.1002/asia... - in collaboration with Prof. Gobec and Prof. Hrast (University of Ljubljana). @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social @wiley.com #antibiotics

Our PhD student Emma Vandenheede presenting her research on the formation of CO2-based azaheterocycles at the #RRB2026 conference in Leuven, Belgium 🙂 @synbioc.bsky.social; @fbwugent.bsky.social

Two weeks ago, Alexandre Bringuet – a Master student @chimieparistechpsl.bsky.social – joined our team for a five-month internship. He will study CO2 capture reactions for the construction of new azaheterocycles, supervised by our PhD student Fien Vanhecke. Welcome Alexandre! @synbioc.bsky.social

Last week, our PhD student Maya Boone presented her work on the preparation of curcuminoid-lanthanide complexes at the 15th Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry Conference in Lisbon 🙂, @synbioc.bsky.social, @fbwugent.bsky.social

Need Pemafibrate? Check out our new route to this PPARα agonist, allowing for the efficient and low-cost preparation of enantiopure Pema at the multigram scale – developed by our PhD student Felien Morlion: dx.doi.org/10.1002/open.... @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social

Our biology paper on curcumin-based benzothiazepane analogs with selective anticancer activity (Prof. Van Camp lab) is now published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social @crighent.bsky.social @sciencedirect.bsky.social

Curcumin-based benzothiazepane analogues exhibit selective anti-cancer activity in HCT-116 cells via precipitated particle formation and internalisation

Despite extensive investigation into the anti-cancer activity of the natural polyphenol curcumin, its therapeutic application is restricted by its inh…

sciencedirect.com

Our SynBioC PhD student Ulrike Ronse presenting our work related to HDAC6 inhibitor development at the MedChem 2025 meeting in Ghent (Dec. 15th) 😀 @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social @crighent.bsky.social

#RRB2026 1-3 June in Leuven Innovating Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow! @chsteven.bsky.social @pedrofardim.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social @synbioc.bsky.social Check our latest newsletter mailchi.mp/7e723ddba897...

New paper alert 📢 Our review article on lanthanide nucleotide coordination polymers for sensing applications is published in Coordination Chemistry Reviews: doi.org/10.1016/j.cc... @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social @elsevierconnect.bsky.social

Our former @synbioc.bsky.social postdoc Goran Poje presenting his research on harmine-curcuminoid hybrids at the EFMC-ASMC 2025 conference in Porto 😀 @fbwugent.bsky.social @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social @euromedchem.bsky.social

Our @synbioc.bsky.social PhD student Kato Bredael presenting her research on monocyclic β-lactam antibacterials at the EFMC-ASMC 2025 conference in Porto 😀 @fbwugent.bsky.social @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social @euromedchem.bsky.social

Our review paper on the synthesis and antibacterial properties of C4-functionalized β-lactams is published in @wiley.com: doi.org/10.1002/cmdc... @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social @chsteven.bsky.social

Our PhD student Ulrike Ronse presenting a decade of work on HDAC6 in our group at the Medicinal Chemistry Frontiers conference 2025 in Chicago 😀 @synbioc.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social

Check out our new paper on 3-imino-β-lactam chemistry, published in J. Org. Chem.: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.... @pubs.acs.org @synbioc.bsky.social @chsteven.bsky.social @fbwugent.bsky.social

#SynBioC Proud about our SynBioC team who participated at the Sofico Ghent Half Marathon last Sunday! We love: "Work hard, play hard" @chsteven.bsky.social @dhooghe-group.bsky.social @smangelinckx.bsky.social @thegreenchemlab.bsky.social

Get to know our enthousiastic SynBioC research group @chsteven.bsky.social @dhooghe-group.bsky.social @smangelinckx.bsky.social @thegreenchemlab.bsky.social

New post: I wrote about a recent PROTAC linker design study that drives home the thoroughness with which you have to experimentally and computationally investigate linker flexibility and properties. It's a great role model for practitioners in the field. medchemash.substack.com/p/the-variet...

The varieties of VHL linker experience

Or why meticulous experimental and computational characterization are integral to good PROTAC design

medchemash.substack.com

Significant progress in sustainable chemistry: researchers from the #unibern and the RIKEN Institute have been able to produce organic #molecules using a chemical reaction based on the sustainable metals #sodium and #iron: mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releas... @evaheviagroup.bsky.social

Sustainable chemistry: producing molecules more environmentally friendly

Researchers from the University of Bern and the RIKEN research institute in Japan have made a significant advance in sustainable chemistry. They have succeeded in producing organic molecules through a...

mediarelations.unibe.ch

New paper! Our work on cancer cell cytotoxic benzothiazepanes (part 3), in collaboration with the Rega Institute @kuleuven.bsky.social, is published in J. Heterocyclic Chem.: dx.doi.org/10.1002/jhet... @fbwugent.bsky.social @wiley.com #curcumin

New Paper Alert! See our joint SynBioC – VIB-CMB work on #HDAC6 ubiquitin-binding domain inhibitors published in Eur. J. Med. Chem. doi.org/10.1016/j.ej... @elsevierconnect.bsky.social, with @rjharding.bsky.social, KU Leuven, @csbugent.bsky.social, K. Van Hecke. @fbwugent.bsky.social

This #OrgLett cover by Guillermo Correa Otero demonstrates human error in mass spec report checking. Instead use CheckAMM! Editorial by EIC Marisa Kozlowski introducing CheckAMM: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... What @christmann.bsky.social found checking AMM reports: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Researchers spend approximately 45% of their time on administrative activities related to #grants rather than actual #research. The current #competition in research #funding has significant drawbacks; evidence-based improvements of the funding system are required: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The costs of competition in distributing scarce research funds | PNAS

Research funding systems fundamentally influence how science operates. This paper aims to analyze the allocation of competitive research funding fr...

pnas.org

Teambuilding activity at the Christmas market in Ghent 😀

Congratulations to our new SynBioC doctor Katarina Magdalenic for the excellent work on curcuminoids, and many thanks to Prof. Zrinka Rajic from the University of Zagreb for acting as an external jury member!

It was a pleasure to host Prof. Annette Bayer from the Artic University of Norway today, who gave a very inspiring lecture about stereoselective CO2 fixation and beta-lactamase inhibitor design