Franchino
Lab
03/2026
Riccardo wins a poster prize at the RSC Organic Chemistry
North-East meeting in Newcastle, on his recently published work.
Well done, Riccardo!
Also this month, Riccardo, Ben and Joe talk about their PhD projects
at the Durham–St Andrews Catalysis Postgraduate Day.
02/2026
We are delighted to have secured funding for three new group members!
1. A postdoctoral researcher on an EPSRC-IAA project with Chiesi Farmaceutici.
2. A Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow, Dr Attunuri Nagireddy, joining this Autumn. Competition was extremely fierce this year, but Nagi's proposal stood out with 97%. Very well done also to our two unsuccessful applicants, who scored 93% and 96%.
3. Amanda Taylor, joining in October from the University of Oxford thanks to a Durham Science SCOPE PhD scholarship.
01/2026
We start the year with the first publication of our group,
selected as a hot paper in Angewandte Chemie:
Anthracene Bisurea as a Supramolecular Chloride Receptor
for Additive-Free, Broad-Scope Gold(I) Catalysis
We incorporate supramolecular principles in the design of gold catalysts. More specifically, we describe a bifunctional Buchwald phosphine-anthracene bisurea ligand,
which enables additive-free gold catalysis with activity and generality levels previously unattainable
using catalytic H-bond donors as chloride scavengers.
Detailed mechanistic studies for the model reaction
show that the exceptional chloride binding ability of the quintuple H-bond donor bisurea, coupled with an autocatalytic manifold, lead to a zwitterionic catalyst resting state, with a broken Au–Cl bond.
All experiments were conducted by PhD student Riccardo and crystallographer Toby. Well done team!
09/2025
We say goodbye to Patricia, who did an amazing job
during her Summer stay with us.
We are excited to welcome four new members in the group:
Janvi and Renzo for their Master thesis projects,
and Ben and Joe for their PhD studies.
In other news, Allegra wins the Dave Kelly Cup for the most
thought-provoking talk at the Gregynog Synthesis Workshop.
08/2025
Well done to Patricia for securing a Royal Society of Chemistry Undergraduate Summer Bursary. Welcome to the group!
06/2025
First day out for the new CG104 lab crew (Franchino, Walton & Schnepel groups).
Countryside walk from the department and lovely pub lunch!
06/2025
Stuart joins the group for his postdoc.
He brings expertise in organometallic chemistry and mechanistic studies of catalytic reactions.
06/2025
Sam concludes his Master thesis projects in the group. At his leaving drinks, we wish him all the best for the next steps!
03/2025
We welcome Aurélien as the first postdoc in the group. Aurélien, who conducted his PhD studies under the supervision of Dr Géraldine Masson in Paris, will apply his catalysis and synthesis knowledge to advance the ChloroCat project.
02/2025
After 10 months of "homelessness", our refurbished lab reopens its doors!
It has been completely renovated,
and we cannot be happier with this new modern space - take a tour here.
10/2024
We welcome Sam for his MChem project, while the ongoing refurbishment
of our old lab is almost complete...
In the meanwhile, this month Riccardo and I really enjoyed talking to the RSC magazine Chemistry World on building soft skills during PhD studies!
08/2024
Jan joins the Franchino group over the Summer thanks to
a generous undergraduate bursary from the Royal Society of Chemistry! Well done Jan!
07/2024
Allegra secures a Future Leaders Fellowship worth £1.5m to carry out the project "ChloroCat -
Unlocking metal-chloride bonds for data-driven stereoselective catalysis" in the next 4 years.
Many thanks to all those who helped with this application, in Durham and beyond, and to our collaborator Dr Jolene Reid at the University of British Columbia. Press releases: here and here.
06/2024
Betty, Charlie and Jude conclude their master degrees.
Best of luck in your next steps!
06/2024
Well done to Riccardo for securing RSC and UniPV travel grants to present
his work at conferences this Summer!
Check out here to see where we are heading to spread the news about our research.
02/10/2023
Welcome to Betty, Charlie and Jude, who join the group as MChem students.
Enjoy your projects!
10/2023
A Research Grant from the Royal Society allows us to equip our lab with a brand new glovebox,
and retire the inherited old one. Excited for the air-sensitive chemistry that lies ahead!
05/06/2023
Ben and Frank conclude their MChem with a First class degree, and are off to Bath for a PhD and to Pharmaron, respectively! Well done guys!
12/06/2023
Imogen, Max and Emma join the group as Summer students. We also welcome high-school student Catherine to check out how academic research looks like.
Summer 2023
Allegra enjoys returning to Spain for talks and two fantastic PhD defences at ICIQ and CiQUS.
01/11/2022
Riccardo joins the group for his PhD.
Welcome to Durham and best of luck!
03/10/2022
Ben and Frank start their Master thesis projects in the group. Enjoy!
13/10/2022
Allegra gives a keynote talk at the XL Congress of the Organic Division of the Italian Chemical Society in Palermo, Italy
01/10/2022
The Franchino lab officially opens its doors in the Department of Chemistry
at Durham University
