For Nele Konrad, who recently earned her PhD, the appeal of chemistry lay in the opportunity to create new molecules and find answers to questions no one had yet answered.
In her doctoral thesis, “Supramolecular Binding and Chirality Sensing in Zinc Porphyrin Receptors: From Molecular Complexes to Hybrid Chiral Materials”, she investigated molecular interactions and materials that could one day help detect pollutants or distinguish between molecules important to the pharmaceutical industry.
Nele Konrad’s journey as a researcher began during her bachelor’s studies, when she joined the Supramolecular Chemistry Group and started carrying out experiments in the laboratory. Research fascinated her from the outset: every day brought new challenges, and she often had no way of knowing in the morning what the day would bring or how it would end.
What particularly drew Konrad to chemistry was the opportunity to create new molecules herself. She wanted to understand how molecules “communicate”, learn to visualise them and modify their properties to achieve a particular goal.
After completing her master’s studies, pursuing a doctorate felt like a natural next step. She greatly enjoyed working in a research laboratory and exploring questions that no one yet knew the answers to. When the opportunity arose to continue as a doctoral candidate in her research group, working on a similar topic, she readily accepted. This marked the beginning of life as a researcher, with experiments and the analysis of their results becoming her main work.
From molecular recognition to new sensors
Nele Konrad focused on colourful receptor molecules known as zinc porphyrins, investigating how molecules recognise and bind to one another and how this process can be influenced. She was interested in how the properties of zinc porphyrins change when another molecule, such as a pollutant, binds to them. She also explored whether zinc porphyrins could serve as molecular sensors to detect and distinguish between specific substances in solution.
One strand of her research concerned molecular handedness, or chirality. Right- and left-handedness are widespread in chemistry and nature: two molecules can be mirror images of each other, like right and left hands, yet cannot be superimposed. Konrad wanted to find out whether and how such molecules could be distinguished from one another.
Collaboration with a research group at the University of Bordeaux eventually led to colourful silica-based chiral materials, which were used as sensors to distinguish between molecules of different handedness. These new materials and their properties proved to be the most surprising aspect of her doctoral research, as her group had no previous experience with such complexes.
Her work advances our understanding of receptor molecules and lays the groundwork for developing new sensors. In the future, these could find applications in environmental analysis or the pharmaceutical industry.
Growing independence through responsibility
One of the most challenging lessons of Konrad’s doctoral studies came from the considerable freedom her supervisor gave her to make her own decisions. She had to manage her time, make choices and take responsibility for them. It was a personally demanding but instructive period that helped her develop into an independent researcher.
What Konrad still enjoys most about research is its unpredictability and the opportunity to solve problems. Even carefully planned experiments can produce surprising results and lead to unexpected outcomes.
Looking back, she would advise her younger self at the start of her doctoral studies to take bold steps sooner and venture beyond her comfort zone more often. She would also encourage herself to recognise from the outset that doctoral studies involve more than research: doctoral candidates are also part of the university’s academic staff.
The next goal: separating lanthanides
Konrad began exploring new research topics during her doctoral studies, turning her attention to lanthanides, a subject of considerable importance both in Estonia and worldwide. She is now applying her knowledge of porphyrins and other macrocyclic molecules in a research group project aimed at detecting lanthanides in solution, binding them for removal from solution, and separating them from one another.
Nele Konrad’s doctoral thesis is available in TalTech Library Digital Collection.
Comment by Professor Riina Aav, Nele Konrad’s doctoral supervisor:
The importance of research into chiral molecules is further underscored by the fact that this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for discoveries in this very field. By studying how to distinguish between such molecules, we reach the roots of highly subtle natural selection.
If we can create systems that distinguish between very similar molecules, this demonstrates that we understand the system’s reactivity in great detail at the level of individual molecules or molecular clusters.
Nele’s doctoral research explored how to generate a highly selective optical response when molecules interact. The choice of porphyrins was no coincidence: they play a crucial role in regulating biological processes. Deliberately modifying their properties and monitoring these changes optically helps us build sensitive supramolecular systems. This is extremely important, for example, in developing chemical sensors that allow us to monitor changes in the environment around us.
As a colleague, Nele has been an excellent – curious and willing to take risks, always ready to explore new ideas emerging within the research group. She is also an excellent experimentalist who sets exceptionally high standards for her results. The research she began during her doctoral studies continues.
I am delighted that Nele is continuing as a lecturer at the university, teaching new generations of students. We have been teaching the undergraduate analytical chemistry course together for several years now, and I can no longer imagine teaching it without her.