Materials Horizons Emerging Investigator Series: Dr Sahnawaz Ahmed, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Kolkata, India
Abstract
Our Emerging Investigator Series features exceptional work by early-career researchers working in the field of materials science.
Dr Sahnawaz Ahmed has been an INSPIRE Faculty Fellow at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) Kolkata, India, since November 2021. He received his doctoral degree in Supramolecular Chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Debapratim Das from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in 2017. Subsequently, he joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata as a National Post-Doctoral Fellow and worked with Prof. Dibyendu Das. After completing a two-year tenure, he joined Prof. Javier Montenegro’s group, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain for his second post-doctoral research posting. His current research interests include the fundamental understanding of supramolecular assembly based on peptides and related molecules as building blocks and the creation of dynamic systems and materials with spatio-temporal control over emergent properties and functions. His research is in the interdisciplinary areas revolving around organic chemistry, materials chemistry and nanotechnology: in a broader sense, Systems Chemistry. So far, throughout his career, he has published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers in reputed journals like Materials Horizons, Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, Chemical Science, and Biomacromolecules to name but a few. Further information can be found in his Google Scholar profile (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t3qhkOUAAAAJ&hl=en).
Read Dr Sahnawaz Ahmed’s Emerging Investigator Series article ‘Chemically fueled dynamic switching between assembly-encoded emissions’ ( https://doi.org/10.1039/D4MH00251B ) and read more about him in the interview below:
Materials Horizons (MH): Your recent Materials Horizons Communication reports a strategy to dynamically switch between two distinctly emissive aggregates. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article and where do you see your research going in future?
Sahnawaz Ahmed (SA): This is my first independent research paper in the field of chemically fueled dynamic assembly. However, I contributed to a similar field during my PhD and post-doctoral research. In those earlier articles, we particularly focused on the bioinspired-dynamic systems development and optimization: non-assembled state to assembled state and vice versa in response to added chemical cues to achieve temporal control over the system’s existence. This sets the scene for understanding the prerequisite for creating such types of autonomously evolving systems under kinetic control. Since then, we have been continuously working to master system design. Furthermore, as the field advances, we think about the exploration of such chemically fueled dynamic systems for exhibiting properties and functions that can be precisely controlled in a ‘space and time domain’. Our most recent article represents an important milestone on our research journey. We successfully achieved a functional dynamic system exploiting a minimalistic peptide building block. Most importantly, the dynamism not only operates between two assembled states but also between their photophysical states i.e., luminescent colors. Looking forward, we are fascinated to uplift our work to the next level soon for the development of smart and intelligent materials. Employing a similar strategy, we aim to increase the complexity within the system to create interconvertible multiple states with distinct physical behaviours and properties. Importantly, the focus will be on translating the dynamic system into real-world material applications by collaborating with industry partners. We anticipate that this emerging area presents a promising avenue for developing futuristic smart and adaptive materials.
MH: What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
SA: At present, our research group comprises a small team of dedicated members, with each one keen to explore a distinct concept within the overarching framework of Systems Chemistry. Playing with colors is fun and this aspect excites us the most! One of our recent endeavors involves the development of autonomously interconvertible luminescent colors. This work revolves around leveraging the self-assembled states of a single fluorophore–peptide conjugate to produce two distinct colors, all powered by a chemical fuel. We will strive to work on developing more complex systems that exhibit the whole spectrum of colors with special attention to translating the systems into material applications.
MH: In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?
SA: The field of chemically fueled dynamic assembly is in a fast-growing phase. In most cases, attention has been paid to systems development by exploiting different types of building blocks and fuels. In this context, a variety of building blocks such as peptides, DNA, covalent polymers, photo-, redox- and pH- etc. responsive molecules and various fuels like chemical, light and sound have been well explored to fabricate a wide range of systems and materials with smart properties. However, the transition of such materials to commercial scales for real-world applications has yet to succeed. Hence, the most important questions that I have faced several times are as follows:
‘What is the need for such dynamic and transient systems, and what are the practical applications for solving real-life problems?’
In recent times some reports including ours are there regarding applications like the development of transient nanoreactors, transient ink and temporal memory, temporal electric circuits etc., however, they are at the lab scale. Therefore, the application and commercialization aspects must be addressed with immediate efforts.
MH: What do you find most challenging about your research?
SA: Being an early career researcher, the most challenging part is to secure funding. The competition is often huge and the funding agencies prefer to play it safe to invest funds in well-established research groups rather than in the early career researcher. Moreover, working in the interdisciplinary area requires a wide range of sophisticated instrumental facilities, and getting regular and timely access to those facilities is sometimes difficult, which ultimately slows down research progress. Another important challenge of my research is the real-time characterization of the dynamic system, which continuously evolves with time. This sometimes also creates uncertainty in reproducibility in data acquisition, which may hamper data accuracy and precision. Hence, more advanced characterization methods and related theoretical models need to be developed to understand the system both macroscopically and microscopically.
MH: In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?
SA: I attend different academic conferences and seminars in different institutes within India whenever I get the opportunity. I am very much interested in attending conferences and meetings in related fields abroad, such as GRC, and conferences organized by RSC and ACS. However, the major hurdle for attending such events is managing funds, especially for travel and accommodation. Nevertheless, these meetings provide valuable opportunities to share insights and research outputs and allow us to collaborate on some innovative and valuable research, which widens our scientific knowledge and skills.
MH: How do you spend your spare time?
SA: To be honest, managing spare time as an early career researcher is always difficult as I have to get involved in multiple academic activities to build and enrich my academic career. However, whenever I manage spare time, I love to spend quality time with my family, parents and friends to make myself emotionally connected which ultimately boosts my academic enthusiasm. In addition, I utilize my spare time to watch movies and cricket.
MH: Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?
SA: My advice to early-career scientists (valid for myself too) is to work hard with persistence and stay patient. Moreover, time should be utilized wisely and effectively because ‘time and tide wait for none’.
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