This weekend a large part of the group attended the annual TOKS meeting, this time held at the Technical University of Denmark. Søren gave an exciting talk and the group had brought several posters. It was a great weekend with interesting talks and good opportunity for networking with other young organic chemists from the Danish universities.

The yearly tradition of running the DHL relay race continued in 2024 with Søren, Thomas, Anna, Michelle and Gustav representing the group. Well done to all five, who finished the race in a very respectable time of 2 hours and 8 minutes!

Today we celebrated another two successful Master's defenses in the group. This time it was Mette and Nanna, who did a wonderful job. Thanks to Christian Adam Olsen (University of Copenhagen) for reading their theses and providing input. Unfortunately, he had to catch a train before a picture could be taken and we have therefore had to be a bit creative. All the best to Nanna and Mette!

Yesterday, Thomas successfully defended his part A report. This also means that he formally has obtained his master's degree. Congratulations to Thomas on the well-executed defense and his new title. Thank you to Robert Madsen (DTU) for a nice discussion of the report and good suggestions for future work.

Yesterday, Anna and Jesper both defended their master's theses obtaining their degrees with flying colors. Thanks to Jesper Kristensen (University of Copenhagen) for good discussions about their work. We wish Jesper and Anna all the best in the future.

This Friday, Michelle defended her PhD thesis on (among other projects) the biosynthesis of polyether ionophore, lysocellin. Thank you to Andrew Truman (John Innes Centre) and Mads Clausen (DTU) for reading and assessing the thesis. Michelle's new title was celebrated with a great party. Michelle will continue her work in the group as a postdoc for the next year.

Yesterday, the group went on the annual canoe trip with the other organic chemistry groups of the department. The paddling arms were once again strong under the blazing sun.

Yesterday, Florian defended his PhD-thesis on the iterative construction of adjacent cyclic ethers. Thank you to Mariola Tortosa (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and Luca Laraia (DTU) for assessing his thesis and attending the defense as opponents. After the defense, Florian’s new title was celebrated with sparkling wine from his home region and a selection of cakes. As per German tradition, his family had made him a graduation hat. Florian will continue his work in the group as a postdoc for the rest of 2024.

This weekend the group participated in the Torkil Holm Symposium held in Copenhagen. It was two days filled with socializing and very interesting talks.

Last week, Ingrid defended her Master’s thesis. Huge congratulations to Ingrid! Thanks goes to Christian Adam Olsen (University of Copenhagen) for reading the thesis and giving his input on the project. The defence was followed by a reception with plenty of cake and snacks. We wish Ingrid all the best in the future!

Last Friday Magnus defended his master's thesis with great success and it was a joy to witness. Congratulations to Magnus and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Last week the Chemical Biology Lab ran the annual DHL Relay Race. With the help from a few runners from Thomas Tørring’s lab, two teams could be assembled this year.

Huge congratulations to Gustav, who today received the award for the best PhD dissertation in Organic Chemistry this year from the Danish Chemical Society.

Within the past week, both Anders and Søren have successfully defended their part A exams. These exams served as their formal master’s defenses and we therefore congratulate them on their new titles. Thanks to Christian Adam Olsen (University of Copenhagen) and Søren Kramer (Technical University of Denmark) for reading the reports and inspiring Anders and Søren with their inputs.

A huge congratulations to Sofie, who yesterday defended her master’s thesis on the OxSTEF probes very successfully. The work was recently published in Bioconjugate Chemistry. We wish Sofie the best of luck in the future.

This Friday the group went on the yearly canoe trip with the other organic chemistry groups at Aarhus University. The weather could not have been better for a nice trip though the beautiful nature in the Ry area.

A huge congratulations to Esben on being awarded the title of “Best PhD” by the Danish Society for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology! Esben will be competing in the “Young Medicinal Chemists’ Symposium” at the EFMC-ASMC conference in September.

This Friday, Jaime very successfully defended his PhD thesis on understanding the activity of lasalocid acid. Thanks to Daniel Strand (Lund University) and Michael Pittelkow (University of Copenhagen) for assessing the thesis and interesting discussion. The defense was followed by Spanish tapas and a night of dancing. Jaime has already started his new job as a patent attorney at Høiberg. We wish him the best of luck in the future.

Congratulations to Anders on being given the “Best Talk” award at the Organic Chemistry Seminar at Aarhus University this Friday. The talk was about the biology of α-lactams, and the preprint it was based on can be found under “Publications”.

Yesterday, Gustav defended his PhD thesis on the total synthesis of [4.3.0] natural products very successfully. It was a joy to witness. The defence was followed by cake, drinks and pies. Thanks to Karl Gademann (University of Zürich) and Jesper Kristensen (KU) for evaluating the thesis. Gustav will continue his work in the group as a postdoc.

This Friday, Esben defended his PhD thesis on (among many other things) establishing the Cell Painting assay. It was a great pleasure seeing him presenting and discussing his impressive work. Thanks to Ed Tate (Imperial College London) and Luca Laraia (DTU) for evaluating his thesis and for interesting discussion at the defence. We are lucky to keep Esben with the Chemical Biology Lab as a postdoc.

Friday featured the annual summer party at the Faculty of Natural Sciences. We were blessed with perfect weather and enjoyed drinks and ‘garden games’: Pictured an intense game of croquet!

Thursday featured the annual DHL relay race: 5x5 kilometers! Well done Thomas, Michelle, Jesper, Ingrid and Asger (borrowed from Tørrings group)! The team finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes, resulting in a placement of 374 out of 1373

On Thursday Alejandro presented his, Anders’ and Marijas work on stable a-lactams for bioconjugation for the Organic Division of the Danish Chemical Society at their annual meeting. Well done! (Psst: Read the preprint here: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-p4wtd)

On Monday Michelle very successfully defended her ‘Progress Report’ at her qualification exam and has thus started her last half of the PhD-studies. Thanks to Tillman Weber from DTU for providing excellent feedback and suggestions.

On Sunday we celebrated Signe and Rasmus who very succesfully defended their master thesis work in the past week. The weather was on our side and we enjoyed food and drinks in the sun. Best of luck to both of them in their future endavours!

Yesterday Rasmus (very!) successfully defended his PhD thesis, on the diversity-focused synthesis of natural products- The defence was followed by food, cake and drinks. Thanks to Mariola Tortosa (who had to join on Zoom) and Mads H. Clausen for evaluating his thesis. We wish Rasmus all the best at Fertin Pharma, where he started last week.

The TBP (The Best Paddlers) group had a delegation participating in the annual canoeing trip with the organic chemistry groups from Chemistry. The weather held up nicely, causing slight sunburns to the unprepared.

Malene finished her position as Research Assistant after completing her B.Sc. and M.sc. with us. She brought an awesome display of homemade cakes as a goodbye-token. She has already started her new job with Eurofins where we wish her all the best.

On Friday, Kristian hosted a ‘goodbye’ get-together, as he will be leaving the group in the end of November. Kristian has been part of the TBP-group since the very start and he will be dearly missed. We all wish him (and Thomas+Per) good luck in their spin-out “Kripthonite Therapeutics”.