Research Group of

Prof. Gerd-Uwe Flechsig

Dr. rer. nat. habil., Dipl.-Chem.

Flechsig group - SUNY Albany 2019

Our group in Summer 2017 at SUNY Albany: Sonivette, Sarasi, Johnsi, P.I., Eun-Ju, Audra, Jonathan, Zhihua

Welcome !


We perform research in the field of analytical chemistry. Our main topic is the development of electrochemical sensors for heavy metals, nucleic acids, and other organic molecules. In many cases we make use of the several advantages of electrically heated electrodes (Hot-Wire Electrochemistry). Several types of heated electrodes have been developed during the last years including noble metal wires and layers as well as carbon paste and screen-printed gold and carbon electrodes.
For our research, we apply various electrochemical techniques and spectrometric methods such as UV/vis, NMR, ToF-SIMS, and RBS.
Latest efforts include studies with impedance spectroscopy and quartz crystal microbalance, as well as nanomachinery such as self-propelled nanomotors and micro-rockets.

Originally located at Rostock University (Germany) our lab moved in September 2013 to Manchester Metropolitan University (UK), in August 2014 to SUNY Albany (United States), and in February 2019 back to Germany, where the group will now be a part of the Department of Applied Sciences at Coburg University.

News 2019:

Congrats! Sarasi Galagedera has successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis on "Study of Small Molecules with DNA Monolayers on Gold Electrodes using Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance on the Millisecond Timescale".

Congrats to Sonivette, Juhaina, Martin, Tatiana, Stephen on their article in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry!

Congrats to Sarasi on her article in Electroanalysis!

Congrats to Sarasi on her article in ChemElectroChem!

The Flechsig lab has moved to Coburg University in Germany, where Gerd has accepted a position as Professor of Environmental and Analytical Chemistry.

News 2018:

Congrats to Prof. Ting Wang, his team, and Sonivette on their paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition!

Congrats to Kasia, Ada, Maren and Katharina on their paper in Electrochimica Acta!

Gerd joined the Editorial Board of Chemosensors (MDPI).

Congrats to Sarasi on her Travel Awards from the International Society of Electrochemistry and the RNA Institute!

Congrats to Sarasi on her award of a Lawrence and Marie Shore Graduate Scholarship!

Gerd has contributed an invited review article on "New electrode materials and devices for thermoelectrochemical studies and applications" for the new Elsevier journal Current Opinion in Electrochemistry.

Congrats to Johnsi, Zhihua and Sarasi on their paper in Electroanalysis!

News 2017:

Congrats to Sarasi, Loan, Falko and Martin on their paper in Electroanalysis!

Congrats to Sarasi and Jörg on their paper in ChemElectroChem, which was selected as a Cover Feature!

Cover Feature Image

Gerd gave a Keynote Lecture at the 8th International Workshop on Surface Modification for Chemical and Biochemical Sensing, SMCBS’2017 in Poland.

Gerd gave a Keynote Lecture at the 1st European/10th German Biosensor Symposium EBS 2017 in Potsdam, Germany.

Congrats! Xiaoqi Ni has successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis on "Electrochemical Hybridization Assay for DNA and Asymmetric PCR Products Detection by Labeling with Osmium Tetroxide".

Congrats! Katarzyna Biala has successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis on "Elektrochemische DNA-Detektion mit Hilfe eines Hybridisierungsassays: Effekte von Temperatur und Fehlpaarungen (Electrochemical DNA Detection by Means of a Hybridization Assay: Effects of Temperature and Mismatches)".

News 2016:

Congrats to Xiaoqi, Ada, Hamdi and Kasia on their paper in Electrochimica Acta!

Congrats to Hamdi, Ada and Waqas on their paper in Electroanalysis!

Congrats! Juhaina Abdulkhalek has successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis on "Investigation of the deposition of some heavy metals at a heated gold-loop electrode in comparison with gold rotating disk electrode in various samples of water."

Congrats to Anne and Fanny on their paper in Sensors & Actuators B - Chemical!

Congrats to Gelaneh on his paper in Heliyon!

News 2015:

Gerd gave a Keynote Lecture at the 7th International Workshop on Surface Modification for Chemical and Biochemical Sensing, SMCBS’2015 in Poland.

Congrats to Kasia and Ada on their paper  in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces!

Gerd joined the Editorial Board of Heliyon (Elsevier).


Positions available
 


M.Sc. and B.Sc. projects


We provide both undergraduates and M.Sc. candidates with interesting topics for research projects in biosensors, environmental, and electrochemical chemistry.
Student research projects are usually part of larger Ph.D. or postdoctoral projects. Past M.Sc. and B.Sc. theses topics of our lab are provided below.

Group Members
 

Gerd-Uwe Flechsig

Sonivette Colón-Rodríguez

Sarasi Galagedera

Dr. rer. nat. habil., Professor of Environmental and Analytical Chemistry

B.Sc.

B.Sc.

Former group members

Finished PhDs

Dr. Jörg Peter
Ph.D. student 2004-2008
Thesis: "Elektrochemische Detektion der DNA-Hybridisierung an heizbaren Goldelektroden. (Electrochemical detection of DNA hybridization at heatable gold electrodes.)"

Dr. Thomas Reske
Ph.D. student 2005-2009
Thesis: "Voltammetrische Detektierung der DNA-Hybridisierung von Oligonukleotiden und PCR-Produkten an Goldelektroden mit Osmiumtetroxid als kovalentem Marker. (Voltammetric detection of DNA hybridization of oligonucleotides and PCR products at gold electrodes with osmium tetroxide as covalent marker.)"

Dr. Falko Wachholz
Ph.D. student 2006-2009
Thesis: "Geheizte elektrochemische Sensoren mit neuartigen Arbeitselektroden und Heizgeneratoren. (Heated electrochemical sensors with novel working electrodes and heating generators.)"

Dr. Heiko Duwensee
Ph.D. student 2005-2009
Thesis: "Towards Electrochemical PCR-Chips - Contributions to Couple Enzymatic Amplification and Electrochemical Detection of DNA."

Dr. Gelaneh Woldemichael
Ph.D. student 2009-2013
Thesis: "Solar UV-Photooxidation as sample pretreatment step in trace metals analysis in natural water samples by differential pulse voltammetric methods."

Dr. Maren Mix
Ph.D. student 2006-2013
Thesis: "Elektrochemische Detektion von PCR-Produkten in Realproben. (Electrochemical detection of PCR products in real samples.)"

Dr. Martin Jacobsen
Ph.D. student 2008-2013
Thesis: "Detektion organischer Moleküle mit Hilfe von heizbaren Elektroden im negativen Potentialbereich. (Detection of organic molecules by means of heatable electrodes in the negative potential range.)"

Dr. Ali Hafez
Ph.D. student 2009-2013, Univ. Siegen (co-supervised with B. Wenclawiak and H. Schönherr)
Thesis: "Development and Applications of Porous Gold Surfaces in Analytical Chemistry."

Dr. Juhaina Abdulkhalek
Ph.D. student 2012-2016, (co-supervisior: P. Langer)
Thesis: "Investigation of the deposition of some heavy metals at a heated gold-loop electrode in comparison with gold rotating disk electrode in various samples of water."

Dr. Katarzyna Biała
Ph.D. student 2011-2017
Thesis: "Elektrochemische DNA-Detektion mit Hilfe eines Hybridisierungsassays: Effekte von Temperatur und Fehlpaarungen (Electrochemical DNA Detection by Means of a Hybridization Assay: Effects of Temperature and Mismatches)"

Dr. Xiaoqi Ni
Ph.D. student 2011-2017
Thesis: "Electrochemical Hybridization Assay for DNA and Asymmetric PCR Products Detection by Labeling with Osmium Tetroxide"

Sarasi Galagedera, Ph.D.
Ph.D. student 2016-2019
Thesis: "Study of Small Molecules with DNA Monolayers on Gold Electrodes using Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance on the Millisecond Timescale"


Finished Diplomchemiker Degrees (MSc in Chemistry)

Dipl.-Chem. Mike Kienbaum
Graduand 2004-2005
Thesis: "Rasterkraftmikroskopie an heizbaren Elektroden. (Scanning force microscopy at heatable electrodes.)"

Dipl.-Chem. Thomas Reske
Graduand 2004-2005
Thesis: "Detektierung der DNA-Hybridisierung an Goldelektroden mit Hilfe von Osmiumverbindungen. (Detection of DNA hybridization at gold electrodes by means of osmium compounds.)"

Dipl.-Chem. Sven Ehlert
Graduand 2007-2008
Thesis: "Untersuchung zur Stripping-Voltammetrie des Arsens mit Hilfe der Rasterkraftmikroskopie. (Investigation of stripping voltammetry of arsenic by means of scanning force micrscopy.)"

Dipl.-Chem. Hanna Ingrid Sopha
Graduand 2007-2008
Thesis: "Adsorptive Stripping-Voltammetrie von klinisch relevanten Metallen und ausgewählten Komplexen. (Adsorptive stripping voltammetry of clinically relevant metals and selected complexes.)"

Dipl.-Chem. Martin Jacobsen
Graduand 2007-2008
Thesis: "Elektrochemische Detektion der DNA-Hybridisierung mit Osmiumtetroxid-markern ohne Modifizierung der Target-DNA. (Electrochemical detection of DNA hybridization with osmium tetroxide markers without modification of target DNA.)"

Dipl.-Chem.  Anne Walter
Graduand 2007-2008
Thesis: "Neue Enzymmarker für die elektrochemische Detektion der DNA-Hybridisierung. (New enzyme labels for electrochemical detection of DNA hybridization.)"


Visiting Research Students

Agnieszka Zając, M.Sc.
Visiting student 2005

Katarzyna Biała, M.Sc.
Visiting student 2007

Magdalena Piekarz, M.Sc.
Visiting student 2007

Pavlína Vidláková, MSc
Visiting PhD from Masaryk University, Czech Republic, 2012

Medard Plucnara, MSc
Visiting PhD from Masaryk University, Czech Republic, 2014

Sandra Ainsua Martinez, M.Sc.
Visiting D.Phil. from Oxford University, UK, 2015

Laia Josa Culleré, M.Sc.
Visiting D.Phil. from Oxford University, UK, 2015

Antti Lahdenperä, M.Sc.
Visiting D.Phil. from Oxford University, UK, 2015

Aubert Ribaucourt, M.Sc.
Visiting D.Phil. from Oxford University, UK, 2015

Ville Väre, B.Sc,
Rotation graduate student, SUNY Albany, 2015

Leif McGoldrick, B.Sc.
Rotation graduate student, SUNY Albany, 2016

Elizabeth Weiss, B.Sc.
Rotation graduate student, SUNY Albany, 2016

Sarthak Patel, B.Sc.
Rotation graduate student, SUNY Albany, 2016


Research Associates

Dr. Annette-Enrica Surkus
Postdoctoral Researcher 2005-2008

Hilal Diab, M.Sc.
Research Assistant 2008

Dipl.-Chem. Anne Walter
Research Assistant 2008-2016

Miriam Adamovski, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher 2003-2008

Dr. Heiko Duwensee
Postdoctoral Researcher 2009-2010

Hamdi Joda, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher 2015-2016

Ada A. Sedova, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher 2015-2016

Dr. Jörg Peter
Postdoctoral Researcher 2015-2016

Zhihua Chang, M.Sc.
Research Assistant, 2017-2019

Johnsi Mathivanan, B.Sc.
Research Assistant, 2016-2019


Undergraduate Researchers, 2011-2012

Fanny Langschwager, B.Sc.
Thesis: "Geheizte nanostrukturierte Gold-Drahtelektroden. (Heated nano-structured gold-wire electrodes)"

Anne-Kristin Rölke, B.Sc.
Thesis: "Einfluss der Temperatur auf die Markierungsreaktion von t-RNA mit dem chemischen Marker Osmiumtetroxidbipyridin. (Influence of temperature upon the labelling reaction of tRNA with chemical marker osmium tetroxide bipyridine.)"

Julia Rüger, B.Sc.
Thesis: "Untersuchungen zur Ermittlung der Nachweisgrenze von gentechnisch verändertem Mais mit Osmiumtetroxidbipyridin als elektrochemischem Marker. (Investigation on detection limits of genetically modified maize with osmium tetroxide bipyridine as electrochemical marker.)"

Katharina Bär, B.Sc.
Thesis: "Elektrochemische Detektion einer Multiple Sklerose-relevanten Gensequenz durch Markierung mit Osmiumtetroxid. (Electrochemical detection of a multiple sklerosis-relevant gene sequence by labelling with osmium tetroxide.)"

Violetta Quiring, B.Sc., University of Siegen
Thesis: "Automatische iodometrische Titration von Kohlehydraten mit biamperometrischer Indikation. (Automated iodometric titration of carbohydrates with biamperometric indication)"

Christoph Herz, B.Sc.
Thesis: "Präparation und Analyse von mit Osmiumtetroxid markierten DNA-­Einzelsträngen. (Preparation and analysis of osmium tetroxide-labelled DNA single strands.)"


Undergraduate Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University, 2013-2014

Stephen Bentham
Report: "SEM-EDX investigation of composition and topography of bismuth and mercury films electrodeposited on gold surfaces."

Alex Berry
Report: "Determination of Nickel and Cobalt ultra-traces in tap water"

Calum Green
Report: "HPLC determination of aromatic nitro-compounds"

Chloe E. Grundy
Report: "The Determination of Lead and Cadmium Ultra Traces in Tap Water using Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (ASV) and Graphite Furnace (GFAAS)"

Robert McMahon
Report: "The Comparison of Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy with Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetry in the Determination of Uranium Ultra-traces in Tap Water"

Steven Plater
Report: "Determination of chromium ultra-traces in water"

Christopher Sumner
Project: "Determination of arsenic and mercury ultra-traces in tap water"


Undergraduate Researchers at SUNY Albany, 2014-2019

Sahra M. Wilamowski
Project: "Voltammetric determination of heavy metals in tap water"

Genevieve Trapani
Project: "Voltammetric detection of single base-mismatches in DNA using gold electrodes and covalent osmium labels"

Elizabeth Weiss
Project: "Voltammetric determination of tetracycline ultratraces in tap water"

Amy L. Zukas
Project: "Voltammetric determination of heavy metals in river water using heated gold electrodes"

Lamyaa Almehmadi
Project: "Voltammetric detection of single base-mismatches in DNA using gold electrodes and covalent osmium labels"

Waqas Awan
Project: "Immobilized DNA hairpin probes with covalent osmium tetroxide labels"

Jonathan Charles
Project: "Voltammetric determination of tetracycline ultratraces in tap water"

Audra Colliton

Eun-Ju Lee
Project: "Voltammetric determination of heavy metals in river water using heated gold electrodes"

Deo Li
Project: "Voltammetric determination of heavy metals in river water using heated gold electrodes"

How to contact me

Postal address:

Coburg University
Dept. of Applied Sciences
Friedrich-Streib-Str. 2

96450 Coburg
Germany

Office:
2-205

Phone:
+49-9561-317-681

e-mail:
gerd-uwe.flechsig*et*hs-coburg.de



Research, Teaching and Scientific CV

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To the Dept. of Applied Sciences at Coburg University

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© 1999-2019 by Markus Jasinski and Gerd-Uwe Flechsig Universität Rostock - University at Albany, Coburg University of Applied Sciences

Last update: 6 December 2019