A new charge-neutral L₂Zn₂ receptor with the ability to bind oxalate as the most competitive dicarboxylate has just been accepted for publication in Beilstein J. Org. Chem. as David's first publication with the title: "Tailored charge-neutral self-assembled L2Zn2 container for taming oxalate". He has found a way to tailor the receptor to handle oxalate without showing signs of complex decomposition, which is rarely observed for metal-based assemblies as hosts due to oxalate's ideal ligand properties and strong chelating character.

Files for 3D printed VSEPR models used in lectures or seminars can be downloaded from Printables and Thingiverse. The models are designed for embedding magnets so that molecules can be easily built and changed during a lecture.

3D files for a UV lamp stand (Vilber-Lourmat VL-6LC) with printing guidelines are now available at Printables and Thingiverse. The stand replaced a DIY cardbox solution in our lab.

Our 3D models for self-printed stackable vial racks, which we use in the lab to store different sizes of vials in a space-saving way, are now available on Printables and Thingiverse. The parametric FreeCAD files are also available to adapt the racks for vials with different diameters or heights.

Huge congratulations to Malavika for winning a poster award for our group at the Girona Seminar & Young Researcher Symposium. The whole group really enjoyed the conference and we would like to thank the organizing committee for their phenomenal work.

Yannic Müller performed very successful research for his Bachelor thesis in our laboratory under guidance of David Ocklenburg and he presented his work end of March. We congratulate him on passing his Bachelor thesis and a succesful defense. We wish him all the very best for his further studies.

Our latest study and Malavika's first paper as a first author "Chiroptical Recognition of Carboxylates with Charge-Neutral Double-Stranded Zinc(II) Helicates" was just published in Chemistry — A European Journal! We unraveled the stereodynamic behavior of charge-neutral helicates with an aryl-triazole-backbone which are capable of binding mono- and dicarboxylates. We exploited these properties for chiroptical recognition of chiral carboxylates and investigated the receptor in the context of chirality analysis.

Malavika was awarded with a poster prize at the ISMSC 2023, the 17th International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry in Reykavík, which was presented by none other than Sir J. Fraser Stoddart. What an absolute honor! Huge congratulations for this outstanding achievement in such a competitive conference, Malavika! We are proud of you!

Nina Mihailov and Alma Marcén joined the group for the preparation of their master thesis. They are students from the University of Saragossa and participate in the Erasmus program to study abroad. Nina is working on a joint project with the group of Dr. Elisabeth Kreidt to develop new CPL active assemblies. Alma is investigating new ways to form charge-neutral helicates as anion receptors. We are happy to welcome them in our group and wish them all the best for their research.

The first research paper "A Charge-Neutral Self-Assembled L₂Zn₂ Helicate as Bench-Stable Receptor for Anion Recognition at Nanomolar Concentration" of the group is published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.! We are extremely thrilled about this achievement! More fascinating dicarboxylate recognition paper utilizing the fundamental principles described in this work are about to come out soon.

We had a wonderful time hitting some "bombs" at Topgolf in Oberhausen. A thunderstorm passed by making presicion gameplay really challenging.