New from our group: proline-rich peptides that target mitochondria & stay there! Tuning hydrophobicity and rigidity provided design rules for CPPs that enter cells and redistribute for long-term mitochondrial residency. Now out in ACS Chemical Biology: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Our senior scientist and Branco Weiss fellow, @tomfialab.bsky.social, is starting his own lab at Masaryk University. 👏 Check him out. So proud of you, Tom!

Tom Fiala@tomfialab.bsky.social · last yr.

We have multiple PhD and Postdoc positions open in my new group at Masaryk University. Are you an excellent and motivated candidate interested in organic and peptide synthesis and chemical biology? Get in touch! Start in January 2026. www.fialalab.com Appreciate sharing!

Congratulations to @tomfialab.bsky.social, who was awarded the @experientiacz.bsky.social start-up grant to start his independent research group at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia with the project "Traceless Affinity Probes for Targeted Alteration of Proteoforms". Have a great start, Tom!

🚨New paper from our group! A clever use of salt bridges to crack a tough problem in collagen heterotrimer design! Hyperstable, minimal-length, and blunt-ended heterotrimers - out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! Congrats to @tomfialab.bsky.social and everyone involved. Check it out: 🔗tin.al/IQej5

Tom Fiala@tomfialab.bsky.social · last yr.

Selectively assembling collagen heterotrimers is a challenge. But not for us! Aminopropline-aspartate salt bridges drive the assembly of a hyperstable, a minimal-length, and a special blunt-ended collagen heterotrimer. Now out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🚨 New preprint from our group! We report a photocatalytic, regiodivergent method to functionalize saturated N-heterocycles at the α- or β-position. The metal-free reaction runs in water with a flavin catalyst and gives rapid access to sought-after piperidines. Check it out here: 🔗 tin.al/DqxU

🚨 Happy to share a new preprint – our group’s first! 🔗 chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr... We report a novel synthetic method to access cyclic ethers from diketones, powered by simple borane catalysts. Thanks to the whole team for their excellent work!

Congratulations, Tobi!

Tobias Schnitzer – Group Leader @ Uni Freiburg@schnitzerlab.bsky.social · last yr.

🎉 Big day for our group: our first publication is out! Tom did a fantastic job highlighting current trends & opportunities in peptide catalysis — now published in Chem Catalysis (open access). Huge congrats, Tom! www.cell.com/chem-catalys...

Chiral spirocyclic oxetanes & azetidines synthesized by organocatalytic additions to strained nitroolefins—a practical route to medicinally relevant molecules. 🔗 pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Enantioselective Conjugate Addition of Aldehydes to Oxetane- and Azetidine-Containing Nitroolefins: An Entry to Spirocyclic Pyrrolidines

Enantioselective amine-catalyzed conjugate additions of aldehydes to oxetane- and azetidine-containing nitroolefins afford γ-nitroaldehydes as key building blocks en route to spirocyclic oxetane/azetidine-pyrrolidines. The study provided insights into the stability and reactivity of these β,β-disubstituted nitroolefins and enabled the enantioselective synthesis of chiral oxetanes and azetidines in moderate-to-high yields and enantioselectivities. This approach expands synthetic access to medicinally relevant scaffolds and broadens the scope of enantioselective organocatalytic transformations.

pubs.acs.org

Fluorescently labeled collagen model peptides are emerging as diagnostics for fibrosis and tissue repair. Our latest study highlights that careful selection of the fluorophore is essential when designing CMPs for such applications. Now out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/4sbhdv95

Fluorophores Nucleate and Stabilize Collagen Triple Helices – En Route to Better Diagnostic Tools for Fibrosis and Tissue Repair

Fluorescently labeled collagen model peptides (CMPs) are emerging as valuable diagnostic tools for fibrosis and tissue repair. We show that fluorophores markedly impact the folding behavior of CMPs a....

tinyurl.com

Linus B Boll@lbboll.eurosky.social · 2y ago

Last year, we found that equipping a fibrosis-targeting collagen model peptide with a Texas Red fluorophore strongly affected the peptide’s folding behavior - so we looked more closely at the influence of fluorophores on triple helix formation and stability. Now out in ACIE: tinyurl.com/4sbhdv95