Giulio Ragazzon

Biography

Giulio Ragazzon is a junior group leader at the Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering (ISIS) in Strasbourg, France. His group investigates the physical organic chemistry of non-equilibrium systems, to engineer unconventional systems capable of harvesting chemistry and to perform non-spontaneous (energy-demanding) processes.

Dr. Ragazzon studied chemistry at the University of Trieste (Italy), with a thesis on photoactive metal complexes. After moving to the University of Bologna for his master's degree, he obtained his PhD in 2017 from the same institution, working on light-driven molecular machines – spending a semester at Tokyo University (Japan) as a visiting researcher. During his postdoc, he worked on non-equilibrium self-assembly at the University of Padua, showing how the principles underlying molecular machines can be exploited to realize thermodynamically unfavoured self-assembly processes. He then joined the University of Trieste as an assistant professor, before starting his independent career at ISIS in 2021. In line with his previous experiences, his group investigates non-equilibrium processes occurring at the molecular scale. As a result of his contributions, he has received prestigious awards and grants: in 2016, he received the European Young Chemist’s Award (EYCA), the most important European recognition at the PhD level and, in 2021, he reached the finals of the Dream Chemistry Award -  a worldwide competition rewarding young chemists who dream of solving fundamental problems with bold ideas - and was awarded an ERC Starting Grant.

You can learn more about Giulio Ragazzon, including some fun facts, in his author profile featured in Angewandte Chemie: 2023, 62, e202300382.

Fellowship 2024

Dates - 01/10/2024-30/09/2026

Project summary

ACTIVE TRANSPORT OF SMALL MOLECULES THROUGH MEMBRANES – POWERED BY CATALYSIS

The transport of ions and molecules across biological compartments is key to life. Current research in this area focuses mostly on enhancing the rate of passive transport of ions, following a concentration gradient. Active transport – where transport occurs against the concentration gradient – is more challenging. In nature, active transport is powered by catalytic processes, an approach yet to be realized in artificial systems, that this project will investigate. Overall, the realization of the proposed research will be rooted in chemistry, while incorporating biology – in terms of the systems to be imitated – and physics, where the formalizing models have been developed.

This project aims to realize active transport across membranes, using a bioinspired approach. In artificial systems, active transport is traditionally achieved by coupling another gradient of species or by using light as an energy source. In contrast, peculiar catalytic mechanisms will be used in this project: such catalytic processes can promote catalysis preferentially when associated with a transport event. The inspiration for using this strategy comes from the mechanisms that naturally occurring molecular machines exploit, called ratchet mechanisms, which are also based on catalysis.

Thanks to the USIAS fellowship, it will be possible to achieve active transport through membranes, starting from macroscopic ones (formed by a liquid), and expanding towards lipid membranes, encompassing both macroscale and nanoscale phenomena. Therefore, it will become possible to force molecules inside minimal cell models. In the medium term, the ambition is to use these strategies to transport and deliver bioactive molecules to specific compartments of the cell, which could open new avenues in drug delivery. The core concept of this project can be extended to redox- and light-driven systems, offering an innovative research direction that engages multiple fields.