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The Board of the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock (LIKAT) has been strengthened by Prof. Dr. Olga García Mancheño. Following a vote by the Board of Curators, the chemist has been a new member of the institute’s five-person leadership team since June. She had already been appointed professor at the University of Rostock at the start of the summer semester. Olga García Mancheño comes from the University of Münster and has been establishing her own research department at LIKAT since the end of last year: “Catalysis in Organic Chemistry.” Among other things, this group is researching so-called supramolecular catalysis, which will be one of LIKAT’s key research areas in the future.
According to Prof. Dr. García Mancheño, supramolecular catalysis is currently becoming a major focus of research, in part because it will enable a “different kind of chemistry” in the future. In this process, the components of a chemical reaction no longer come into direct molecular contact with one another. “Typically, in a chemical reaction, molecules form strong—what we call covalent—bonds by, for example, sharing electron pairs,” explains the chemist. In supramolecular catalysis, however, the molecules come into contact only indirectly, in a non-covalent manner.
Supramolecular Networks and the World Cup
Instead, the molecules involved communicate, so to speak, through their position and spatial orientation—or via electrostatic charges—and thus influence each other’s activity without forming a strong bond. This is quite comparable to an informal, yet extremely cohesive network.
Chemists call this effect “weak interaction.” Anyone who wants to get a sense of it currently has ample opportunity during the World Cup. On the field, the effect is most evident when the ball rolls freely across the field: The soccer players maintain visual contact with the ball and with exposed teammates. Even when the ball rolls far away from them, they adjust their direction and speed of movement based on its position.
Nature as a Model
However, the model for supramolecular chemistry is not sports, but nature. There, enzymes act as catalysts capable of selectively and precisely converting only a specific substrate from a multitude of substrates with very similar structures. And molecules spontaneously assemble into ordered, complex structures without external intervention. “Nature carries out these processes very efficiently,” says Prof. García Mancheño, “but it takes a highly specialized approach, whereas we are aiming for broad applicability.”
The hope is to be able to harness these mechanisms industrially. This could revolutionize the development of active ingredients—and chemical processes in general—toward greater sustainability.
Charge as a Means of Communication
This requires innovative catalysts that determine the flow of information within the supramolecular network. Prof. García Mancheño: “Which structures and which designs influence the activity of the molecules? How can this activity be controlled? What new reactions does this make possible?” To explore these and other questions, eight young researchers from Münster have followed their professor to Rostock.
In a recent paper for *NATURE COMMUNICATIONS*, Olga García Mancheño describes the structure and function of a tellurium compound that, as a catalyst, enables “new molecular interactions.” “Although the atoms of this compound have a high electron density, as we demonstrate, they generate what is known as a positive hole—specifically at a position that is crucial for the activation of reaction components.”
Formation of Chiral Structures
In their experiments, Prof. García Mancheño and her team succeeded in forming chiral molecules in this way. Chiral molecules exist in both “true” and mirror-image structures: They have the same molecular formula but are arranged either left- or right-handed, which is why their properties can vary dramatically. This poses a major challenge, particularly in the development and production of pharmaceuticals, where ultimately only the “true” molecule is allowed to form. This is where so-called asymmetric catalysis comes into play.
“Our tellurium compound enables this asymmetric catalysis via a non-covalent mechanism, specifically through the structure of this positive hole we have described,” says the chemist. The catalyst is thus able to convey information about the chiral structure of the target molecules to the supramolecular network.
Later-State Functionalization
At LIKAT, Olga García Mancheño’s group collaborates with colleagues from the fields of theoretical chemistry and photocatalysis, among others. Their work involves, for example, the activation of CH bonds, which can be used in drug design to modify the effects of functional groups. “Supramolecular chemistry would provide the development department with a tool that allows it to significantly alter the function of its active ingredient even at the very end of what is otherwise a very long chain of syntheses. We call this late-state functionalization.”
The professor’s team is one of the few groups in the world capable of successfully carrying out “efficient asymmetric supramolecular catalysis,” as she puts it. With their expertise, LIKAT can significantly expand its research portfolio and play a leading role in yet another field of the future.
Prof. Dr. Olga García Mancheño
Head of the research department "Catalysis for Organic Chemistry"
Olga.garcia@catalysis.de
L. Massold, J. O’Brien, K. Fengler, A. C. Keuper, R. Hidalgo-León, C. Trujillo & O. García Mancheño, Nat. Commun. 2026. Neutral chiral bidentate tellurium-triazoles for enantioselective non-covalent chalcogen-bonding catalysis.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74139-0
https://www.catalysis.de/en/research/translate-to-en-katalyse-fuer-die-organisch...
Prof. Dr. Olga García Mancheño - Head of research department “Catalysis for Organic Chemistry” at LI ...
Copyright: Olga García Mancheño
A LIKAT employee prepares a reaction vessel for a synthesis under an inert gas atmosphere. (Illustra ...
Copyright: LIKAT/ D. Gohlke
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