Medicines are frequently comprised of flat, two‑dimensional foundation from organic chemistry, which are generally connected to one another by means of a carbon-carbon bond (C-C) or a carbon-nitrogen bond (C-N). Teacher Hansmann and his team are working to make three‑dimensional natural compounds functional 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 stable. The binding pockets of proteins, which are frequently the target of medicines in the body, can also readily bind spatially complicated active‑ingredient molecules. In pharmaceutical chemistry, there is for that reason great interest in integrating new three‑dimensional structural elements into active components in order to develop much more efficient medications.
This is where the SPIROPENT task can be found in: the scientists in Professor Hansmann’s group will develop three‑dimensional core structures that can be applied in active‑ingredient particles. To do so, they utilize what are called spiro [2.2] pentanes. These are natural compounds in which two rings, each comprised of three carbon atoms, are signed up with to one another by means of a shared central carbon atom. “We will analyse the synthesis of the new building blocks in information and explore their use in pharmaceutical chemistry, with the objective of developing novel molecular building blocks that might be utilized in modern-day medications,” says Hansmann. His group had currently developed the method required for this in 2025, releasing it in Science and patenting it. It makes it possible to place carbon atoms into natural core structures in a targeted manner. Building on these findings, the SPIROPENT project will now produce a series of brand-new three‑dimensional structures.
About the person
Teacher Max Hansmann has been Teacher of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at TU Dortmund University considering that 2023. In 2019, he had actually accepted a visit as junior professor 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 Beginning Grant for the task CC‑CHARGED, under which he is examining fundamentally new classes of substances in organic chemistry.
Max Hansmann’s professorship
ERC Evidence of Principle Grants 2026
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