Medicines are often comprised of flat, two‑dimensional foundation from natural chemistry, which are generally linked to one another through a carbon-carbon bond (C-C) or a carbon-nitrogen bond (C-N). Professor Hansmann and his group are working to make three‑dimensional natural compounds usable for drug advancement. Such active‑ingredient structures have the benefit of enhancing pharmacokinetic residential or commercial properties – for example, by being more water‑soluble or more metabolically steady. The binding pockets of proteins, which are often the target of medications in the body, can also readily bind spatially complex active‑ingredient particles. In pharmaceutical chemistry, there is therefore fantastic interest in integrating brand-new three‑dimensional structural aspects into active components in order to establish even more effective medicines.
This is where the SPIROPENT project can be found in: the scientists in Teacher Hansmann’s group will establish three‑dimensional core structures that can be applied in active‑ingredient particles. To do so, they make use of what are known as spiro [2.2] pentanes. These are organic substances in which 2 rings, each made up of 3 carbon atoms, are signed up with to one another through a shared main carbon atom. “We will evaluate the synthesis of the brand-new foundation in information and explore their usage in pharmaceutical chemistry, with the objective of developing novel molecular foundation that might be used in modern-day medicines,” states Hansmann. His team had actually already established the approach required for this in 2025, publishing it in Science and patenting it. It makes it possible to place carbon atoms into organic core structures in a targeted way. Structure on these findings, the SPIROPENT task will now produce a series of new three‑dimensional structures.
About the person
Professor Max Hansmann has been Teacher of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at TU Dortmund University given that 2023. In 2019, he had actually accepted a visit as junior teacher with tenure track at TU Dortmund University, and from 2020 he headed an Emmy Noether early‑career research group. In 2022, he received an ERC Starting Grant for the job CC‑CHARGED, under which he is investigating fundamentally new classes of compounds in organic chemistry.
Max Hansmann’s professorship
ERC Evidence of Idea Grants 2026
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