Love the concept!!

Same 😊

Big thanks to our co-authors from academia: @fragrisoni.bsky.social, @dirktrauner.bsky.social, Marcel Bermudez and from industry: Marcel Mülbaier and Clemens Dialer (Grünenthal GmbH).

Here, we discuss the potential for the development of analgesics, structure-activity relationships on NaV channels, biosynthetic hypotheses and chemical syntheses.

But that is not all! To showcase the potential of dfdc azobenzenes for the development of chemical tools, we synthesized dfdc-OptoBI-1 and demonstrated its biological activity as a red light-operated activator of TRPC6 channels in HEK293 cells.

The data was used to establish a computational approach that allows to compute realistic UV-vis spectra by combining TD-DFT excited-state calculations with MD simulations. As such, our combined experimental and computational study enables the in silico design of new highly red-shifted photoswitches.

In total, we have added 15 new visible light-operated photoswitches to the toolbox for the development of optical devices with relaxation rates across multiple orders of magnitudes and identified several examples with stronger bathochromic shifts than the dfdc azobenzene lead structure.

We have developed synthetic protocols for a variety of derivatives of the dfdc (di-ortho-fluoro-di-ortho-chloro) azobenzene scaffold and performed an in-depth study into their photophysical properties using NMR, UV-vis and X-ray analysis.

Thanks Ivana!

Thanks Johannes!