Staff Profiles

Dr Fabien Cougnon

PhD

Contact Details

Lecturer
Art/Science building
NUI Galway
University Road
Galway
T: +353 (0) 91 492 478
E: fabien.cougnon@nuigalway.ie
https://cougnonlab.com

Biography

Fabien Cougnon graduated from the University of Strasbourg (France) in 2006, and completed his PhD in supramolecular chemistry in 2012 at the University of Cambridge (UK) under the supervision of Professor Jeremy K. M. Sanders. His doctoral work focused on the dynamic combinatorial synthesis of unusual donor-acceptor catenanes. For this work, he received an EPSRC Doctoral Prize, which was used to sponsor a 9-month research project in the laboratory of Professor David A. Leigh at the University of Edinburgh (UK). Fabien then pursued post-doctoral research in chemical biology under the guidance of Professor Elizabeth M. Nolan at MIT, where he worked on a class of host-defense peptides named human defensins. He started his independent career at the University of Geneva in 2015 as an Ambizione Fellow. In January 2021, he joined NUI Galway as a lecturer.

Research Interests

Research in the Cougnon group revolves around molecular topology. We are interested in:

1) synthesizing molecules with complex topologies, such as knots;

2) exploring how knotting molecules changes their properties;

3) developing applications using molecular knots at the interface with other disciplines.

Group Website: https://cougnonlab.com

Peer Reviewed Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2021)	'Diastereoselective Amplification of a Mechanically Chiral [2]Catenane' Caprice, K,; Pál, D.; Besnard, C.; Galmés, B.; Frontera, A.; Cougnon, F.B.L. (2021) 'Diastereoselective Amplification of a Mechanically Chiral [2]Catenane'. Journal Of The American Chemical Society, [DOI] [Details]
	(2020)	'Untying the Photophysics of Quinolinium-Based Molecular Knots and Links' Caprice, K;Aster, A;Cougnon, FBL;Kumpulainen, T (2020) 'Untying the Photophysics of Quinolinium-Based Molecular Knots and Links'. Chemistry-A European Journal, 26 :1576-1587 [DOI] [Details]
	(2019)	'Ion-Mobility Mass Spectrometry for the Rapid Determination of the Topology of Interlocked and Knotted Molecules' Kruve A;Caprice K;Lavendomme R;Wollschläger JM;Schoder S;Schröder HV;Nitschke JR;Cougnon FBL;Schalley CA; (2019) 'Ion-Mobility Mass Spectrometry for the Rapid Determination of the Topology of Interlocked and Knotted Molecules'. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 58 (33) [DOI] [Details]
	(2019)	'Synchronized On/Off Switching of Four Binding Sites for Water in a Molecular Solomon Link' Caprice K;Pupier M;Bauzá A;Frontera A;Cougnon FBL; (2019) 'Synchronized On/Off Switching of Four Binding Sites for Water in a Molecular Solomon Link'. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 58 (24) [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Imine-based [2]catenanes in water' Caprice K;Pupier M;Kruve A;Schalley CA;Cougnon FBL; (2018) 'Imine-based [2]catenanes in water'. Chemical Science, 9 (5) [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'A Strategy to Synthesize Molecular Knots and Links Using the Hydrophobic Effect' Cougnon FBL;Caprice K;Pupier M;Bauzá A;Frontera A; (2018) 'A Strategy to Synthesize Molecular Knots and Links Using the Hydrophobic Effect'. Journal Of The American Chemical Society, 140 (39) [DOI] [Details]
	(2017)	'Tight Embrace in a Molecular Knot with Eight Crossings' Cougnon FBL; (2017) 'Tight Embrace in a Molecular Knot with Eight Crossings'. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 56 (18) [DOI] [Details]
	(2016)	'Engineering Protein Self-Assembly: A New Approach for the Design of Octahedral Cages' Cougnon FB; (2016) 'Engineering Protein Self-Assembly: A New Approach for the Design of Octahedral Cages'. Chembiochem : A European Journal Of Chemical Biology, 17 (24) [DOI] [Details]
	(2015)	'Molecular motion of donor-acceptor catenanes in water' Cougnon FB;Ponnuswamy N;Panto¿ GD;Sanders JK; (2015) 'Molecular motion of donor-acceptor catenanes in water'. Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, 13 (10) [DOI] [Details]
	(2014)	'Homochiral and meso figure eight knots and a Solomon link' Ponnuswamy N;Cougnon FB;Panto¿ GD;Sanders JK; (2014) 'Homochiral and meso figure eight knots and a Solomon link'. Journal Of The American Chemical Society, 136 (23) [DOI] [Details]
	(2013)	'Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry with Novel Dithiol Building Blocks: Towards New Structurally Diverse and Adaptive Screening Collections' Postma, TM;Galloway, WRJD;Cougnon, FBL;Pantos, GD;Stokes, JE;Spring, DR (2013) 'Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry with Novel Dithiol Building Blocks: Towards New Structurally Diverse and Adaptive Screening Collections'. Synlett, 24 :765-769 [DOI] [Details]
	(2013)	'Reduction of human defensin 5 affords a high-affinity zinc-chelating peptide' Zhang Y;Cougnon FB;Wanniarachchi YA;Hayden JA;Nolan EM; (2013) 'Reduction of human defensin 5 affords a high-affinity zinc-chelating peptide'. Acs Chemical Biology, 8 (9) [DOI] [Details]
	(2012)	'Discovery of an organic trefoil knot' Ponnuswamy N;Cougnon FB;Clough JM;Panto¿ GD;Sanders JK; (2012) 'Discovery of an organic trefoil knot'. Science, 338 (6108) [DOI] [Details]
	(2012)	'Templated dynamic synthesis of a [3]catenane' Cougnon FB;Jenkins NA;Panto¿ GD;Sanders JK; (2012) 'Templated dynamic synthesis of a [3]catenane'. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 51 (6) [DOI] [Details]
	(2012)	'Evolution of dynamic combinatorial chemistry' Cougnon FB;Sanders JK; (2012) 'Evolution of dynamic combinatorial chemistry'. Accounts Of Chemical Research, 45 (12) [DOI] [Details]
	(2012)	'Structural parameters governing the dynamic combinatorial synthesis of catenanes in water' Cougnon FB;Ponnuswamy N;Jenkins NA;Panto¿ GD;Sanders JK; (2012) 'Structural parameters governing the dynamic combinatorial synthesis of catenanes in water'. Journal Of The American Chemical Society, 134 (46) [DOI] [Details]
	(2011)	'Exploring the formation pathways of donor-acceptor catenanes in aqueous dynamic combinatorial libraries' Cougnon FB;Au-Yeung HY;Panto¿ GD;Sanders JK; (2011) 'Exploring the formation pathways of donor-acceptor catenanes in aqueous dynamic combinatorial libraries'. Journal Of The American Chemical Society, 133 (9) [DOI] [Details]
	(2010)	'Exploiting donor-acceptor interactions in aqueous dynamic combinatorial libraries: exploratory studies of simple systems' Au-Yeung, HY;Cougnon, FBL;Otto, S;Pantos, GD;Sanders, JKM (2010) 'Exploiting donor-acceptor interactions in aqueous dynamic combinatorial libraries: exploratory studies of simple systems'. Chemical Science, 1 :567-574 [DOI] [Details]
	(2007)	'Evaluation of phenylorganotellurium compounds as radical precursors in dialkylzinc-mediated radical addition to C=N double bonds' Cougnon, F;Feray, L;Bazin, S;Bertrand, MP (2007) 'Evaluation of phenylorganotellurium compounds as radical precursors in dialkylzinc-mediated radical addition to C=N double bonds'. Tetrahedron, 63 :11959-11964 [DOI] [Details]