Cryptophanes (Crs) are cage-like molecular host known since decades to encapsulate many different entities, and particularly well suited for xenon. Then, the development of Cr-based biosensors has been tremendously studied for applications in hyperpolarized xenon magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in biological systems. Several works have demonstrated their applicability and relevance, in particular in cells assays, but to date, no application of such a bioprobe has been reported in vivo. Indeed, the complex preparation of Cr-monosubstituted derivatives and the poor solubility of these molecules in biocompatible media precludes the obtention of an efficient xenon based bioprobe. Even though considerable progress has been made in the characterization of the cryptophane’s structural aspects and exploration of their unique host–guest chemistry in the past four decades, the synthetic schemes to produce such derivatives have not evolved so much, leading to minor modifications of the whole backbone of cryptophanes, then narrowing their potential others applications.
The purpose of Neo-Crypto project is to extend the cryptophane chemical space by using and improving a newly described synthetic strategy developed by our group. The obtained new molecular hosts will be evaluated as hyperpolarized Xe-sensors for MRI.
Deadline for application January 15th, 2024
Please send a CV and the name of two references to emmanuelle.dubost@unicaen.fr