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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · 26d

Getting ready for the 2025 Trauner Group Retreat!

Reposted by Dirk Trauner

Johannes Morstein @morstein.bsky.social · Aug 14

Excited to share our new @pubs.acs.org paper! We engineered cells with ~10% photolipids in the ER membrane. This enabled optical control of membrane viscosity to study its impact on ER→Golgi protein transport. @dirktrauner.bsky.social @noemijimenezrojo.bsky.social

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Optical Control of Membrane Viscosity Modulates ER-to-Golgi Trafficking

The lipid composition of cellular membranes is highly dynamic and undergoes continuous remodeling, affecting the biophysical properties critical to biological function. Here, we introduce an optical a...

pubs.acs.org

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jul 25

Just out: Our collaboration with Eric Schelter & Randall Wilharm on parsing the fascinating photochemistry of lanthanides with azobenzene photoswitches. A deep dive into light and rare earths en route to more efficient separations.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Breaking a Lewis Acidity Trend for Rare Earths by Excited State Quenching

Facilitating different chemistries between the rare earth (RE = La–Lu, Sc, Y) ions is of significant interest for their separations. While the bulk of attention has been on maximizing the small differ...

pubs.acs.org

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jun 26

Greetings from the GRC on Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors! It’s exciting to see how the field has grown and is moving toward everyday applications—think photoswitchable tattoos!

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Apr 29

I love the Hoya carnosa in my office climbing on polytwistane.

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Apr 17

I had a great time at the University of Rochester as the Victor Chambers Lecturer! And I really enjoyed the amazing George Eastman House and Museum, built by a millionaire (nowadays billionaire) who was civic minded and kept a low profile.

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Feb 15

Thanks - if you see something that needs correction of amendment please let us know.

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Feb 15

We have updated our "Chemical Neuroscience" course to include pentameric ligand-gated channels and the first GPCRs. www.traunergroup.org/teaching

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Feb 15

Check out our approach toward disciformycin and gulmirecin, spearheaded by Peter Ruehmann @nyuchemistry.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Feb 7

Ready to take off as a synthetic chemist? Check out this tutorial review we wrote with Frank Glorius and Jasper Tyler!

Frank Glorius @gloriusfrank.bsky.social · Feb 7

Scholarly review written by @DirkTrauner and @GloriusGroup:

Reaction development: a student's checklist📜☑️😀

Published in Chem. Soc. Rev.
doi.org/10.1039/d4cs...

Reaction development: a student's checklist

So you’ve discovered a reaction. But how do you turn this new discovery into a fully-fledged program that maximises the potential of your novel transformation? Herein, we provide a student's checklist...

doi.org

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Feb 6

I am teaching my favorite course again this semester:
"Chemical Neuroscience - a Synthetic Approach".
We are posting some materials online, check them out.

www.traunergroup.org/teaching

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Feb 3

We lost a towering figure in synthesis. It was a huge honor to serve as Amos’ colleague.

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jan 23

Dearomative Diels-Alder reactions are currently hot in total synthesis. They go back to Peter Yates (who trained my mentor Sam Danishefsky). And the Wessely reaction was also discovered in Vienna :)

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jan 18

And here is a challenge to you sialyl aficionados: Why do newborns excrete polysialic acids? Where does it come from? From polysialylated GPCRs? Can’t be on that scale. I never found that answer.

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jan 18

Zbiral was also one of the first chemists to work on sialic acid. We had to obtain it through hydrolysis of meconium, the stuff newborns excrete in their first days. It contains large amounts of polysialic acid. Later, we switched to Chinese birds' nests. Fun times!

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jan 18

My first chemistry professor in Vienna, Erich Zbiral, shall not be forgotten. Everybody loves the Tanabe-Eschenmoser Fragmentation but the analogous Zbiral-Fragmentation of epoxy vinyl azides is equally cool.

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jan 16

Check out our latest application of proximity-based photopharmacology (PBPP), published in Neuron.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Dopamine D1 receptor activation in the striatum is sufficient to drive reinforcement of anteceding cortical patterns

Timed dopamine signals underlie reinforcement learning, favoring neural activity patterns that drive behaviors with positive outcomes. In the striatum…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Jan 15

Check out our paper on veratramine and isosteroidal alkaloids, now published in JACS.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Concise Synthesis of (−)-Veratramine and (−)-20-iso-Veratramine via Aromative Diels–Alder Reaction

A concise and convergent synthesis of the isosteroidal alkaloids veratramine and 20-iso-veratramine has been accomplished. A Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons olefination joins two chiral building blocks of app...

pubs.acs.org

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Dec 21

As efficacy switches, they also provide insight into how opioids can switch from weak to strong agonists!

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Dec 21

Introducing a new class of potent opioid analgesics that remain in the periphery (hence no respiratory depression) and can be locally activated with light (hence no constipation). Great collab with Seva Katritch, Cornelius Gati, and Josh Levitz.

biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Image

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Dec 21

Great collab with Seva Katritch, Cornelius Gati, and Josh Levitz.

Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Dec 21

Great collab with Seva Katritch, Cornelius Gati, and Josh Levitz.

Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Dec 19

Amazing!

Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Dec 18

Azorellolide! How can you not work on a natural product that starts with "Azo"?
I have to say my respect for carbocations has enormously gown through this project. They are just too high in energy and have too many options. But you can tame them!
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Biomimetic Synthesis of Azorellolide via Cyclopropylcarbinyl Cation Chemistry

A concise synthesis of the complex diterpene azorellolide, inspired by speculations on biosynthetic cationic cascades, is presented. The approach, guided by computation, relies on the intramolecular interception of a cyclopropylcarbinyl cation by an appended carboxylate. The successful execution of this strategy was achieved through acid-catalyzed isomerization of a β-lactone in competition with a type I dyotropic rearrangement.

pubs.acs.org

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Dirk Trauner @dirktrauner.bsky.social · Dec 18

Fun collaboration with David Konrad, Ursula Storch, and Michael Mederos y Schnitzler.

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