IN²UB INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SEMINARS
Supramolecular luminescent assemblies: imaging and beyond…
By, Prof. Luisa de Cola, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy and IFG- KIT Karlsruhe, Germany. Awarded the Nitti-Casassas Prize in its inaugural edition (2025) (joint initiative between the Societat Catalana de Química (SCQ) and Società Chimica Italiana).
Date and Venue: January 19th, 2026 at 12.00h – Magna Room (Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences – Campus Pedralbes)
(Chaired by Prof. MªLluïsa Pérez, IN²UB and Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences)
Abstract
Luminescent molecules that can undergo self-assembly are of great interest for the development of new materials, sensors, biolabels…. The formation of assemblies using Pt(II) compounds allows the tuning of their emission color, and change their response to oxygen, to pressure and temperature allowing new properties such as mechanochromism and vapochromism leading to a new class of materials possessing reversible properties. The monitoring of the different emission properties, is used as fingerprint for each of the assembled behavior.
Few years ago, we have shown that it is possible to follow, using a confocal microscope, an unprecedented real-time visualization of the evolving self-assemblies1.
More recently, we discovered that even the supramolecular assemblies, that are transient species in solution, can be entrapped in organosilica structures, and be transported and released in a very specific environment, a living cell, in which they reach their equilibrium with the formation of supramolecular polymers2.
Interestingly, self-assembly of such metal complexes can occur not only in solution and in controlled solvent ratios but also in living organisms. The supramolecular process in transparent animals can be visualized by the bright emission of the assembly and we have studied the process in the small freshwater polyp Hydra. We found that using water soluble luminescent platinum complexes we can follow the assembly in the body of the animal and that the self-assembly trigger unexpected biological event such self-regeneration of tissues.
(1) A. Aliprandi, M. Mauro, L. De Cola Nature Chemistry 2016, 8, 10-15
(2) P. Picchetti, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 7681-7687
(3) T. Pecoraro to be submitted
About the Author
Luisa De Cola is since November 2020 Professor at the University of Milan and part time scientist at the INT-KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany.
She was born in Messina, Italy, where she studied chemistry. After a post-doc in USA she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna (1990). In 1998 she was appointed Full Professor at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In 2004 she moved to the University of Muenster, Germany. In 2012 she has been appointed Axa Chair of Supramolecular and Bio-Material Chemistry, at the University of Strasbourg. She is recipients of several awards and recognitions, the most recent being the Izatt–Christensen Award in Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry (2019), the gold Medal Natta (2020), the Centenary Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry (2024), the Nitti-Cassas Award and the Ziegler Natta prize 2025. She has been nominated “Chevalier de la Légion d’ Honneur” by the President of the French Republic, François Hollande; elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, of the Accademia dei Lincei and fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
She is the editor in chief of Chemistry Europe.
Her main interests are: supramolecular assemblies, labels for diagnostics, and nano- and porous structures for biomedical applications. She has published more than 400 papers and filed 40 patents. She is the cofounder of the spin-off Bionys, dealing with diagnostics in vitro.