Sander Wezenberg receives ERC Starting Grant

Sander Wezenberg has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros. The ERC awards these prestigious grants to excellent researchers in order to stimulate groundbreaking research in Europe.

Sander will work on the project “LIGHTPORT” which aims at the development of light-responsive anion receptors that can be used to regulate or induce transmembrane transport. Anion transport, which in cells is mediated by transport proteins, is essential to many biological processes. Dysregulation of this transport has been associated to various diseases and therefore, chemists endeavor to develop artificial receptors that imitate the function of natural transporters. This ERC project will address the challenge of integrating dynamic, stimuli-responsive behavior in synthetic receptor systems, which is a key contemporary challenge.

Sander Wezenberg is Assistant Professor at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry. Before he came to Groningen in 2013, he worked at top-level research institutes in Switzerland, Spain and the United States. He is an internationally recognized and renowned expert in supramolecular coordination chemistry and switchable photochromic materials.