PhD student, Rob Ives, was able to attend a Chemistry symposium to talk about his research into organic and supramolecular chemistry with thanks to a grant from the Student Opportunities Fund.
I am a fourth year PhD candidate in organic and supramolecular chemistry working in the Department of Chemistry. I was able to attend the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Biology Symposium 2024 hosted at Burlington House in London, courtesy of financial support from the St John’s Opportunities Fund.
At the symposium, I attended talks covering wide-ranging areas of chemical biology from world leaders in academia and industry from around Europe and internationally. Moreover, he was able to attend the keynote lecture from Professor Morten Meldal – recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for bio-orthogonal chemistry and click chemistry.
I also had the opportunity to present my work on the Shapeshifting Molecules at the conference research poster presentation session, discussing my research with experts attending, further progressing my professional development.
Participating as both a presenter and as a member of the audience was invaluable at this event
My research has aimed to utilise recently developed synthetic methods to construct novel bullvalenes (BVs) and investigate the ‘shapeshifting’ phenomenon found when these molecules interact with host molecules in solution. This has lead to further examination of the interactions of BVs with complex biomolecules, such as enzymes, furthering our understanding of the chemistry of diseases such as those attributable to unknown protein binding sites.
The ability for BV species to access a range of chemical space opens up the possibility for BVs to be used as molecular scaffolds to probe biomolecular interactions of protein-ligand binding, thus for exploration purposes in medicinal chemistry.
Participating as both a presenter and as a member of the audience was invaluable at this event, as it served as a platform to not only network for future collaborations, but also to make an impression with potential post-doctoral supervisors. In addition, I enjoyed hearing a diverse set of seminars across the ever growing and dynamic field of chemical biology, from academic and industrial world leaders in the chemical biology community whose research is closely related to my own.
With the end of my PhD approaching, this was likely my final chance to present and I am grateful for an enjoyable experience.
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