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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 1d

Please folks save the date for 2nd half of September 2027 - hopefully our "Quo Vadis Photoswitches" critical meeting in Frankfurt will get the greenlight & it seems you'd belong! #molswitch #photopharma

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 1d

Preaching to the choir...

Dirty uses of clean compounds are just as bad as the outright PAINS.

Why is it still not mandatory for all (bio, med, pharm) chemists to get educated on (a) bringing in robust control compounds; (b) cosolvents & the kinetics of solubility; (c) high-quality probes?

Reposted by Thorn-Seshold Lab

Ben Schumann @drglycoben.bsky.social · 2d

The human UDP-Gal-4-epimerase is important for cellular biosynthesis of UDP-Gal and UDP-GalNAc. Both are important precursors for glycosylation. GALE KO abrogates cellular levels of these metabolites. GALE plays a role in cancer (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31908526/) - so we decided to drug it!

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Reposted by Thorn-Seshold Lab

Daumann Lab @daumannl.bsky.social · 5d

Video compilation from our #türenauf mit der Maus Tag today! #outreach #chemsky @hhu.de @sophieguti.bsky.social @joguti.bsky.social @markussuta.bsky.social @chemiehhu.bsky.social

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

Congrats to the CHalo Crew - Philipp Mauker, Carmen, Lucas, Luciano, @joycemeiri.bsky.social , @redoxlab.bsky.social , and many more;

and thanks to the many generous supporters who made it possible with reagents @kjohnsson.bsky.social , protein @lipid.bsky.social @beliulab.bsky.social , and more!

Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

For chemists, sure: to misquote Jimmy, "it hurts how that structure just could not be any simpler."

But that's not a bug, it's a feature...

& nobody had bothered to make 4-(4-aminobutyl)-N-(3-chloropropyl)aniline until now.

What's your experience of "the simplest molecules nobody made before"?

Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

So... @chemkritzer.bsky.social do you want to team up for the Cage1:CHalo-----------Cage2:CBz-1 heterodimeriser?

I bet a conditional Bz works similarly. Perhaps just amide => amine => carbamate?

(@PM for background info: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a... and facultyprofiles.tufts.edu/joshua-kritz...)

facultyprofiles.tufts.edu

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

Job Opp: Do you want to be the driver of those next steps as a PhD student?

If you have a strong background in synthetic chemistry & chemical biology, we want to hear from you - hiring for 2026!

tu-dresden.de/mn/chemie/oc...

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

What can HaloTag do for you?

Triggered fluorogenic labelling?
Molecular recording?
Photo-Chemically Induced Dimerisation?

Philipp Mauker's CHalo motif lets reagents do all three, and more.

Read the preprint here -
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#chembio #fluorescence #cellbio #SLP

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

Molecular Recording with HaloTag?
H2O2, GSH, Trx, LAP?

→ multiplexable reagents record diverse enzyme activities ratiometrically, without signal loss

@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social
preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

CHalo Crew again programming with HaloTag!
#chembio #fluorescence #wednesday

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

Photocaged HaloTag Ligation with red fluorogenic SiR labels:

→ on-demand HaloTag visualisation and tracking

@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Congrats Philipp Mauker, Joyce Meiring, & the CHalo Crew for again programming with HaloTag!
#chembio #fluorescence #wednesday

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · 7d

Chemically Induced Dimerisation, modular & on-demand:

=> Fast, stepwise reagents for HaloTag-to-SNAP-tag heterodimerisation without a hook effect

Now preprinted: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Congratulations to Philipp Mauker & the CHalo Crew for programming with HaloTag!
#chembio #fluorescence #friday

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Reposted by Thorn-Seshold Lab

Julia Thorn-Seshold @juliathornseshold.bsky.social · Aug 12

We boosted tumour-selective delivery of nano-formulated chemotherapeutics by transiently shaking up tumour blood vessels. The catch? You only get one shot at this ☝️ This #BMBF funded work, driven by a predominantly female team @lmumuenchen.bsky.social is available on the @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · Aug 12

The delivery of nano-formulated drugs to solid tumours is selectively increased by co-application of the vascular disrupting agent CA4P https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.10.669501v1

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Feb 13

I think your speaker lineup missed… no, actually, yup everyone is there 🤗🤗 Looks great, I wish I could go!!

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Reposted by Thorn-Seshold Lab

Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) @gdch.de · Feb 13

🔍 Chemie studieren - eine Formel für die Zukunft!
Ihr kennt jemanden, der überlegt Chemie zu studieren, aber sich nicht sicher ist? Ein Chemiestudium bietet spannende Möglichkeiten. Auf www.chemie-studieren.de finden sich alle Infos rund um Studiengänge, Ausbildungen und Berufe in der Chemie.

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Reposted by Thorn-Seshold Lab

Ulrich Lab @ulrichlab.bsky.social · Feb 13

Join our GBM Redox Meeting 2025 in Saarbrücken! We put together an exciting program covering diverse aspects of Redox Regulation in Life.
Check out the Programm and register until Feb 28!
redox-gbm-meeting-2025.uni-koeln.de
#redox #redoxbiology #gbm
@gbmev.bsky.social

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵9/9
Now I am looking forward to next-gen works photocontrolling membrane permeation of diverse other species & in live: from highly polar cargos hidden in known carriers, to macromolecules, to #thiol-mediated uptake (?!) - who knows?

#lipids & #photoswitch membranes: a match made in HEaVℕ

Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵8/n
& hats off to the lipid #photoswitch academics (@dirktrauner.bsky.social, Klaus Groschner, James Frank, Oleksandra Tiapko, @dbkonrad.bsky.social, @fuchtermatt.bsky.social, & more) for the chemistry that means you can now just buy photo #lipids from €€ndustry (Avanti etc) to try this at home :)

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵7/n
So: hats off to the Linz/Graz crew of Jürgen Pfeffermann, Rohit Yadav, Toma Glasnov, and Peter Pohl, who did all the hard work, and the very hard thinking that was needed in the beginning to understand what on earth was going on! It's been a pleasure to join for the ride and see it take shape.

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵6/n
And, it opens the perspective to photocontrol membrane transit of basically any ion for which you can buy a decent ionophore, across model membranes or even cell membranes from any biological background:

all without genetic engineering. #optogenetics #chembio

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵5/n
Leveraging the ion recognition power of small molecule chemistry should also allow rather higher ion specificity of photocurrents than #optogenetics approaches, as well as the higher currents overall.

#ephys #chembio

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵4/n
This seems to be a fully modular approach.

Apply a photolipid of choice (or metabolically dope it into cells); apply an ionophoric species (even those like NB-lipid that are *usually seen as ineffective*); and off you go to photoswitch very large, specific ion currents with light.
#lipidtime

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵3/n
The Pohl lab's two-reagent approach applies low loadings of standard photolipids to photocontrol membrane order; plus standard, long-known, ion-specific but non-photoresponsive *organic ionophores*.

Unlike ions alone, these can leverage small membrane changes into huge transit rate changes.

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

🧵2/n
To date, most biophyiscs work on ion photocurrents took a one-reagent approach: either photoswitching
(a) a specific ionophore's ion affinity, or
(b) a membrane constituent's general *ion* permeability.

=> time-consuming, low switchability, low currents.
#photoswitch #photopharmacology

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Thorn-Seshold Lab @thornsesholdlab.bsky.social · Jan 26

For ion-specific photocurrents across membranes: just let ionophores intermingle with photolipids.

A fully modular approach with easy access to large currents.

Stoked that this years-long sleuthing effort led by Peter Pohl is finally out! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#photopharma #ChemBio #lipidtime

photocontrol over high-current specific ion flows across lipid membranes can be achieved by mingling light-responsive photolipids with ion-specific carriers.

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