Congratulations to our Ph.D. students Noemi Poma, Federico Vivaldi and Andrea Bonini, from the Chemistry Lab for Analytical Technologies and Sensors (CATS), for their recent review entitled "Microbial biofilm monitoring by electrochemical transduction methods". The negative impact associated to biofilm development in both the industry and the human health, demands the development of strategies for the in situ and early detection of biofilm formation.
Stabilised arylzinc iodide, prepared by direct insertion of zinc into aryl iodides, were used as nucleophiles in the Hayashi Rh‐catalysed enantioselective conjugate addition to enones. The reaction conditions were optimized in the addition of phenylzinc iodide to 2‐cyclohexen‐1‐one, obtaining good yields and 99% ee of the addition product. The general applicability of the protocol was checked using different arylzinc iodides and enones. Organometallic reagents endowed with both halogen and electrophilic groups were also successfully used.
Protein binding heavily modulates drug activity. Therefore, the binding features need to be elucidated when chemistry researchers study new molecules to be used as drugs. This short review concerns the analysis of the binding of small molecules to a fluorescent protein (the golden standard serum albumin) by using direct fluorescence titrations. This widely used technique is valuable, but often much more tricky than it might appear at first sight. We aim to share a mechanistic approach, discussing the critical aspects for correctly designing the experiments and treating the data.
Congratulations to our Ph.D. student Francesca Binacchi for her recent scientific pubblication entitled: "On the Different Mode of Action of Au(I)/Ag(I)-NHC Bis-Anthracenyl Complexes Towards Selected Target Biomolecules" Gold and silver N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are emerging for therapeutic applications. Multiple techniques are here used to unveil the mechanistic details of the binding to different biosubstrates of bis(1-(anthracen-9-ylmethyl)-3-ethylimidazol-2-ylidene) silver chloride [Ag(EIA)2]Cl and bis(1-(anthracen-9-ylmethyl)-3-ethylimidazol-2-ylidene) gold chloride [Au(EIA)2]Cl.
