Our group is driven by the passion of discovering new reactivity in organic chemistry, especially using catalysis. Basing on high energy molecules, such as strained rings or cyclic hypervalent iodine reagents for electrophilic alkynylation and other transformations, we develop non-conventional bond disconnections for the synthesis of important building blocks and bioactive molecules, as well as the modification of biomolecules. We also control the regioselective functionalization of alkenes and alkynes using in situ tethering approaches. Regular group meetings and seminars allow us to share and enhance our knowledge and love of organic chemistry.
OPENINGS IN THE GROUP For postdoc: earliest in Fall 2027. For PhD: earliest in Fall 2027. For master projects and thesis: earliest in Fall 2026.
LCSO on Twitter (Waser Group@LcsoLab)
Latest News
December 5: Congratulations to Clément on winning the Dean’s Award 2025 for excellence in teaching and mentoring!
December 3: Congrats to Tin for receiving the Doctoral Program Thesis Distinction!
December 1: Another wonderful LCSO Christmas dinner, raclette, a fun quiz and the LCSO Awards!
November 4: Christine, Stefano, and Xinjian Ji in the Heinis group report in JACS the first use of EBX reagents for site-selective cysteine functionalization, achieving selective modification of a single cysteine in KEAP1 even in cell lysate. (DOI: /10.1021/jacs.5c13391)
November 1: Welcome to Dr. Uttam Dhawa for his postdoc!
October 14: Nina and Valentas have successfully passed their candidacy exams. Congratulations!
October 10: Another great edition of the LCSO Alumni gala buffet froid at EPFL!
October 9: Congratulations to Yuji for receiving a Best Poster Prize Award at the ChemBioParis2025!
October 9: Congrats to Clément for winning the best poster presentation award at the first EDCH Research Day!
October 4: The review of Emma on cycloaddition and annulation reactions with Donor-Acceptor cyclobutanes has now appeared in Helvetica Chimica Acta! (DOI: /10.1002/hlca.202500140)
October 1: Welcome to the lab to Felix Göbel for his PhD! Welcome to Anissa Haim from the University of Amsterdam for her exchange.
September 9: Clément has successfully passed his candidacy exam. Congratulations!
September 5: Congratulations to Adriana for receiving the SynOpen Poster Prize Award at The International Symposium on Synthesis and Catalysis in Coimbra!
September 4: Congratulations to Christine for winning the runner up poster prize in the chemical biology session of the SCS Fall Meeting!
September 1: Welcome back to the lab to Lucie Orain and Daphne Lucidarme for their PhD! Welcome to Alex-Mihai Simionescu from the University of Groningen for his master’s thesis.
August 29: The review of Xingyu on the group’s work on peptide/protein functionalization and macrocyclization has now been published in open access at Acc. Chem. Res. (DOI: /10.1021/acs.accounts.5c00451)
August 29: Emma Robert successfully defended her PhD thesis. She is the PhD student number 32 to obtain their degree at LCSO. Congratulations!
August 12: The LCSO Summer Group Outing took place in Les Diablerets and Glacier 3000!
July 10: Emma has successfully passed her final PhD exam. Congratulations!
June 27: Congrats to Christine and Josh for winning a poster presentation award at the 8th International Conference on Hypervalent Iodine Chemistry!
June 20: Congrats to Alex, Christine, and Helena for receiving the SCNAT Travel Award 2025.
June 17: The review of Pierre covering the azidofuntionalization of alkenes is now available in Chemistry Europe (DOI: /10.1002/ceur.202500140)
June 10: Josh was selected as a Doctoral Scholar in the Croucher Class of 2025. Congratulations!
June 5: Xingyu’s work with Wei Cai, Beat Fierz, and Anne-Sophie Chauvin on peptide-cyanoarene photocatalysts for biological labeling is now accepted in Angewandte Chemie! (DOI: /10.1002/anie.202507602)
May 28: BCP-EBXs! New hypervalent iodine reagents combining EBX and BCP motifs, by Najung and the prelimiary work of Jonas and Elija, has just been accepted in Angewandte Chemie! (DOI: /10.1002/anie.202508404)
May 27: Tin Nguyen successfully defended his PhD thesis. He is the PhD student number 31 to obtain their degree at LCSO. Congratulations!
May 22: The work of Emma on the diastereoselective and enantioselective addition of thiols onto cyclobutenes using bifunctional organocatalysts is now accepted in Chem. Sci. (DOI: /10.1039/D5SC01727K)
April 25: Pierre Palamini successfully defended his PhD thesis. He is the PhD student number 30 to obtain their degree at LCSO. Congratulations!
April 1: Welcome to Annick Delmonaco, our new administrative assistant, and to Carolin Veras, who started her apprenticeship!
March 26: Farewell to Véronique Bujard, the administrative assistant at LCSO for the last 13 years. A huge thank you!
March 3: Welcome to our new master thesis students, Hugo Senelle from ENSCM and Lucie Orain from EPFL.
January 31: Vladyslav Smyrnov successfully defended his PhD thesis. He is the twenty-ninth PhD student to obtain their degree at LCSO. Congratulations!
January 31: Congrats to Pierre for winning a poster presentation award at the Swiss Industrial Chemistry Symposium 2025!
January 31: Congrats to Christine for winning a poster presentation award at the 2nd EFMC International Symposium on Chemical Biology!
January 29: Pierre has successfully passed his final PhD exam. Congratulations!
January 20: Carlo has successfully passed his candidacy exam. Congratulations!
January 18: Congrats to Josh for winning a poster presentation award at the Swiss Snow Symposium 2025!
January 8: Tin has successfully passed his final PhD exam. Congratulations!
January 2: Now in Angewandte Chemie, the photocatalyzed azidofunctionalization of alkenes developed by Pierre together with Alexandre. (DOI: /10.1002/anie.202420455)