Join us for our first seminar of the 2023/2024 Academic year.

September 20, 4pm ET

Dr. Burhan Hussein

Post-doctoral Fellow, McGill University

Bio:

Burhan was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He completed his B.Sc. (2014) and M.Sc. (2017) at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), working under the supervision of Dr. Bryan Koivisto and focusing on the synthesis of novel BODIPY derivatives. After his master’s, Burhan joined the Science Discovery Zone – a science-based startup incubator at TMU – as a science facilitator, working with Dr. Marc Adler on synthesizing hypervalent silane porphyrins. In 2018, Burhan moved to the UK for his Ph.D. studies at Durham University under the supervision of Dr. Paul McGonigal, focusing on the control of dynamic supramolecular systems. Burhan returned to Canada after his Ph.D. studies and joined the Lumb group as an NSERC PDF (2023). Here, he focuses on developing novel silane molecular scaffolds as a platform for cancer therapies.

Control of Dynamic Supramolecular Systems

In dynamic covalent chemistry, dynamic covalent rearrangements of fluxional carbon cages, such as bullvalenes and barbaralanes, impart shapeshifting molecular properties that have sparingly been studied. This research project focuses on developing methodologies to concretely control these dynamic fluxional carbon cages to simplify and analyze their structural complexity. Non-covalent control was achieved through the encapsulation of these fluxional molecules. This host-guest chemistry can control the dynamic regioisomerism & stereochemistry through molecular metal-organic cages and chiral macrocycles. For covalent control, the configuration of the cage is controlled by covalently tethered functional moieties. These methodologies involve incorporating phosphine-based ligands to control shapeshifting molecules through metal coordination. The development of such techniques will allow routine access to shapeshifting systems to explore their properties and application beyond synthetic, physical organic chemistry and at the interfaces with materials chemistry and biology.

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Our monthly online seminar series, features STEMM scholarship from across disciplines, aimed at a general STEMM audience.

All are welcome!

• 4pm ET
• Third Wednesday of every month
• September 2024 through April 2024.

Register once and we will remind you each month.

Watch this space for seminar speaker announcements!

• September 20
• October 18
• November 15
• December 20
• January 17
• February 21
• March 20
• April 17

The CBSN/RCSN gratefully acknowledges the University of Toronto Scarborough and its support as the Network Host Institution, and the Academic Program Committee of the Network for the BE-STEMM Seminar Series.