M. Eugenio Vazquez
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glowsticks.bsky.social
M. Eugenio Vazquez
@glowsticks.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.2K following 330 posts
Peptide engineering, supramolecular chemistry, DNA binding, caged molecules, luminescent sensors & chemistry art. "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one."

ORCID: 0000-0001-7500-985X
http://www.chembiousc.gal
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glowsticks.bsky.social
Skip the fume hood, get brain damage and Nazi vibes. #ChemSky 🤯

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Screen capture with the initial paragraph of The Atlantic piece: “The story we got about world war ii is all wrong,” a guest told Tucker Carlson on his podcast two weeks ago. “I think that’s right,” replied Carlson. The guest, a Cornell chemistry professor named David Collum, then spelled out what he meant: “One can make the argument we should have sided with Hitler and fought Stalin.” Such sentiments might sound shocking to the uninitiated, but they are not to Carlson’s audience. In fact, the notion that the German dictator was unfairly maligned has become a running theme on Carlson’s show—and beyond.”
September 4, 2025 at 9:02 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Fantastic!! Beautiful! It reminds me the work of Radivoj V. Krstić.
Ink drawing of a cell
August 26, 2025 at 10:58 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
A fantastic liquid handling system for your next grant proposal. 😀
#ChemSky
August 11, 2025 at 9:33 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
From the Killing Eve episode "Management sucks" 😀
An older woman speaks seriously on a couch. Subtitle: "Management is not easy. It's watching someone do job worse than you."
July 15, 2025 at 9:10 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Yves Klein would have loved your Si rhodamine 😉
Black and white Image of artist Yves Klein wearing a white shirt, dark vest, and bow tie, prominently holding up in the foreground his right hand, which is covered in bright blue paint.
July 10, 2025 at 8:13 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Huge thanks to Carmen González-González @ciqus.bsky.social‬, who worked tirelessly during her PhD to make sense of all this, and to our awesome collaborators at @UnivAveiro (Manuel Melle-Franco), and @UGR (Ángel Orte and Juan A. González-Vera).
Cartoon showing Prof. Manuel Melle/Franco (left); Prof. Ángel Orte (center-left, holding a fluorescent Erlenmeyer); Soon-to-become-Dr. Carmen González-González (center-right); Prof. Juan Antonio González-Vera (right). Thank you to all!!!
June 9, 2025 at 3:39 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
We also had a great cover proposal for the journal but, sadly, they went with a different one, so I get to share our vision with you. #sciart #scicomm #science #chemistry #outreach
Artistic interpretation showing a concrete alpha helix and neon signs with Es and Ks, representing the luminescent salt bridges.
June 9, 2025 at 3:39 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
We even used these peptides as antennas to sensitize Tb(III) and Eu(III) luminescence, demonstrating that these systems can engage in energy transfer processes, just like regular fluorophores, and extending their use to bioimaging and tagging applications.
Time gated emission spectra of 50 µM solutions of DOTA-(E4K4)4 in the presence of 1.0 eq of a) Tb(CF3SO3)3, and b) EuCl3 showing the typical lanthanide emission bands that demonstrate energy transfer from the NAF sequence.
June 9, 2025 at 3:39 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
In a striking departure from long-held assumptions in protein photophysics, we observed luminescence in solution (λₑₓ = 320 nm, λₑₘ ≈ 420 nm) in single α-helical peptides with only Lys/Arg and Glu residues, and *no aromatic amino acids* in their sequence 🤔
Image of the structure of the (E4K4)4 α-helix and the corresponding helical net diagram showing the stabilizing salt bridges between Glu and Lys residues; UV/Visible absorption spectrum showing the absorption bands and below, the Excitation-Emission Matrix (EEM) showing a clear emission band at 420 nm
June 9, 2025 at 3:39 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
The screening is _very_ simple: soak the SPOT slide in PdCl₂(COD), wash thoroughly, add a fluorogenic substrate, and look for fluorescent spots to identify the peptide sequences catalyzing depropargylation. #ChemSky
Shematic representation of the screening of a SPOT library to identify metallopeptide catalysts. Top of of image shows a microscope slide with the full library then below, the procedure used in the screening as explained in the text, and below an image of the fluorescence, showing a black background with a regular array of bright yellow spots with different intensities, which correlate with the depropargylation of a fluorogenic substrate
May 8, 2025 at 8:29 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
First introduced in 1992, SPOT libraries are widely used in biology but oddly overlooked in catalysis. In our paper, we show they can help identify β-hairpin Pd(II) metallopeptide catalysts that perform a depropargylation reaction. #ChemSky
Representation of a beta hairpin peptide coordinated to Pd through two His side chains and, on the right, scheme of the depropargylation reaction of the fluorogenic substrate.
May 8, 2025 at 8:29 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
We’ve recently shown that proteins with no aromatic residues can be fluorescent 💡 Join us to explore this paradigm-shifting phenomenon—Non-Aromatic Fluorescence (NAF)—and help build the next generation of optical imaging tools. 🔬🧬🔖
A protein alpha helix glowing in green over a black background
May 6, 2025 at 9:36 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Playa de Carnota en 10 años…
April 8, 2025 at 6:08 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
I came to recommend that one too 😀 and also “Ship os Theseus”
Book cover of “ship of Theseus” showing a sail ship on a cloth hardcover
March 15, 2025 at 10:55 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
March 12, 2025 at 7:36 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
if you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery
The Devil's Bridge over the Deza River.
Black and white image of an overcast winter day and an old mossy stone bridge in the background. The photo was taken with a long exposure and shows the river as a blured surface.
January 26, 2025 at 6:00 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Using positionally addressable SPOT libraries in combination with a fluorogenic substrate, we rapidly identified β-hairpin palladopeptides that catalyze an intracellular depropargylation This greatly simplifies the screening process and opens new doors for bioorthogonal catalyst ☺️
#ChemSky
Scheme of the screening of catalytic metallopeptides. a) Left: The structure of a trpzip hairpin indicating as stubs the positions mutated in the screening (1 to 12 from N- to C- terminus), right: schematic representation of the trpzip hairpin indicating the positions of the screening; b) Fluorescent readout and results of the screening of the probe; c) Screening of the CelluSPOT library. The catalytic metallopeptides are identified by their position in the array, and their relative activity quantified by the emission of each spot at increasing incubation times.
January 21, 2025 at 6:37 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
🚀 We are excited to share our latest preprint on ChemRxiv that describes a simple approach using SPOT libraries to quickly identify metallopeptides for intracellular catalysis. #ChemSky

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...
Selecting a catalytic metallopeptide from a spot library. A microscope slide with the library is shown on the left, together with the structure of a metallopeptide (Palladium peptide catalyst) on the right.
January 21, 2025 at 6:37 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
We just updated our preprint on non-aromatic fluorescent peptides and demonstrate that they can be used to sensitize the luminescence of Tb(III) and Eu(III) ions #ChemSky

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...
Using (E4K4)4 as antenna to sensitize Tb(III) and Eu(III). The image shows the structure of the (E4K4)4 peptide with a DOTA chelator, and below the time gated emission spectra of 50 µM solutions the peptide in the presence of 1.0 eq of a) Tb(CF3SO3)3, and b) EuCl3 showing the characteristic peaks of both lanthanides.
January 20, 2025 at 8:40 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Check out the mechanical beauty of the Bugatti Tourbillon. Not a single screen (for just over 4 million) 😥
Intricate instrument cluster of the Bugatti Tourbillon, designed and built with the expertise of Swiss watchmakers.
January 8, 2025 at 6:03 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Why did it take us 10 years to publish this? Long story short, it all went south when the students who started the project left the lab before completing the experimental work; the next student... let's just say we didn't make much progress. Then came COVID, then we had to start all over again...
December 9, 2024 at 7:59 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
We show that the dimeric bisbenzamidine exhibits much higher DNA binding affinity than the monomer, recognizing composite sites with two adjacent AAATTT sequences. NMR experiments, complemented by molecular dynamics, offer structural insights into the compound’s insertion into the DNA minor groove.
Figure showing a short double-stranded DNA (Dickerson's dodecamer) with a benzamidine inserted in the minor groove in its central region with the AATT sequence. The backbone is colored according to the changes in the DNA chemical shifts shown on the left, aligned with the DNA.
December 9, 2024 at 7:59 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Just one example of Irving Geis's genius. See how he drew the hydrogen bonds in the 310 helic bent, not straight like in the alpha helix? Well, it turns out that the carbonyl groups in the 310 helix are tilted off the axis, so the geometry of their hydrogen bonds is far from ideal.
Schematic structure of a 310-helix showing bent hydrogen bonds. On the right, an alpha helix has nearly ideal H bonds, and so they are represented as straight lines.
November 30, 2024 at 9:54 PM
glowsticks.bsky.social
Just another example of Irving Geis' masterful work in this book
Sample page from Dickerson and Geis' "The structure and action of proteins" showing the different types of helical secondary structures in proteins. At the top of the image, from left to right, 310 helix, alpha helix, and pi helix; at the bottom of the image, the hydrogen patterns of each type of helix.
November 29, 2024 at 11:23 AM
glowsticks.bsky.social
... but using old sources has some drawbacks. For example, their wonderful Ramachandran diagram—have you ever seen one more beautiful?—does not match the modern notation for Φ/Ψ! so the discussion on the canonical angles for the secondary structures is all messed up 😵‍💫
November 29, 2024 at 9:18 AM