During his PhD studies, Dante Guldbrandsen Andersen has performed research aiming to expand and investigate the usages of thiol-activatable enzymes termed “chemical zymogens”. Chemical zymogens are activated by any free thiol, so to gain control, the latter is either encapsulated in synthetic cells or used in separate solutions only connected through air. Dante Guldbrandsen Andersen shows in five different papers results that indicate that the combination of spatially separated chemical zymogens and synthetic thiol-generating molecules constitutes a versatile platform that enables unprecedented strategies of enzyme-sensing and the establishment of communication between synthetic cells, solutions, living cells, and virus.

The achieved results are valuable in the field of synthetic biology, and furthermore, the novel technique for sensing enzymes shows potential in point-of-care biosensing – in here exemplified with mobile-phone detection of influenza virus.

The PhD study was completed at the Interdeciplinary Nanoscience center (iNano), Faculty of Natural Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Friday, 16 January at 12:00
Place: Building 1514, room 213, Lecture Theatre AUD I, Chemistry, Aarhus University, Langelandsgade 140, 8000 Aarhus C.
Title of PhD thesis: Chemical Zymogens in synthetic cells and airborne sensing
Contact information: Dante, e-mail: dga@chem.au.dk tel.: +45 40685313
Members of the assessment committee:
Professor Sebastién Lecommandoux, Institut polytechnique de Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, France
Group leader Oskar Staufer, Leibniz Institute for New Materials, INM Saarbrücken, Germany
Associate professor Elena Ferapontova (chair), Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Aarhus University, Denmark
Main supervisor:
Professor Alexander N. Zelikin, Chemistry, Aarhus University, Denmark
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Natural Sciences/GSNS, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, 8000 Aarhus C