SUPRAMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY
GROUP LEADER
| BENJAMIN ELIAS |
Profile |
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Benjamin ELIAS got his B.S. in Chemistry (2000) and Ph.D. degree (2005) from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium (Organic Chemistry and Photochemistry, Prof. A. KIRSCH – DE MESMAEKER and Prof. C. MOUCHERON). After a postdoctoral scholarship at the California Institute of Technology (Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Prof. Jacqueline K. BARTON, 2006-2008), he is currently starting his independent research career at the Université catholique de Louvain, in the “Unité de Chimie organique et médicinale”.
His main research interests and fields of expertise are:
- Supramolecular chemistry and photochemistry
- Organic synthesis, oligonucleotide synthesis on solid support
- Synthesis, spectroscopic and electrochemical characterization of coordination compounds, including their interaction and reaction with biomolecules
- Photoprobes for biomolecules
- Time-resolved spectroscopic techniques
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Unité de Chimie Organique et Médicinale
Bt.Lavoisier (c. 059)
1 Place louis Pasteur (Box 2)
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve-Belgium
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Email :
Tel. +32 10 47 30 14
Fax. +32 10 47 41 68
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RESEARCH OVERVIEW
The design of new functional nanomaterials has recently become one of the most popular fields in Sciences. The potential applications of these systems in various research areas such as anti-cancer drug design, artificial muscles construction or sunlight conversion into chemical or electrical energy make them excellent candidates for the development of new powerful technologies. In this field, supramolecules, resulting from the non-covalent assembly of several building blocks, represent a major class of compounds. Indeed, they show specific and additional properties compared to each separate building blocks.
The research developed in the lab focus on the conception and study of new functional supramolecular nanomaterials able to perform specific functions in response to an external stimulus.
Depending on the nature of each building blocks, three major research fields are investigated:
- Renewable energy sources, with the design of DNA-based devices able to produce Hydrogen under light irradiation
- Drug delivery systems, with the construction of active systems for the delivery of anti-tumoral species
- Smart materials
