About

Professor Annaliese Franz is a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California-Davis. Her research group focuses on combining organic synthesis, catalysis, and chemical biology with applications for the synthesis of bioactive products, biofuels, and materials. Her work involves developing innovative chemical methods and materials, such as engineered silyl lipids for mRNA delivery, multifunctional chiral silanol ligands for enantioselective catalysis, and carbon-storing structural materials based on wastewater-cultivated Chlorella sorokiniana. She is actively engaged in advancing the understanding and application of chemical processes to address biological and environmental challenges.

Research topics

• Organic chemistry
• Chemistry
• Combinatorial chemistry
• Chromatography
• Stereochemistry

Selected publications

• Blue Light-Promoted O–H Insertions of Silanols and Functionalization of Silicon Nanomaterials

  Organic Letters · 2026-03-19

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  We report the conversion of the silanol O-H bond through a blue light-promoted insertion strategy using diazo compounds. Various silyl ethers can be accessed in excellent yields (up to 90%) and rapid reaction times under mild conditions and operationally simple manipulations. Good functional group tolerance and compatibility are observed across a range of silanols and diazo compounds, allowing for the efficient chemoselective synthesis of a diverse set of silyl ethers. We further applied this O-H insertion strategy to siloxanols for the synthesis of functionalized silsesquioxane (POSS) nanomaterials.

  PublisherDOI

• Engineered Silyl Lipids to Modulate Liposome and Lipid Nanoparticle Properties for mRNA Delivery

  ACS Applied Bio Materials · 2025-07-21

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  The design of amphiphilic lipid structures can be used to modulate key properties for diverse applications in biology and nanomaterials. We have engineered a structurally diverse class of amphiphilic silyl lipids using a hydrosilylation reaction as the key step to access lipids that vary the silyldimethyl position, branching, length, and substituents in the lipid tail. We demonstrate that the size, zeta potential, rRNA encapsulation, stability, bilayer fluidity, and mRNA transfection are controlled by varying the structure of the silyl lipid tail. Five silyl lipids exhibit high encapsulation, and three feature enhanced stability and transfection in HEK293T cells relative to DOTAP as a classic reference lipid. Incorporation of a branching silyldimethyl group (in place of a cis alkene or methylene) increases bilayer fluidity in liposomes.These results support the idea that incorporating a silyldimethyl group and accessing diverse lipid structures can control liposome properties and mRNA delivery, showing promise for using silyl lipid structures in other biology and biomaterial applications.

  PublisherDOI

• Silyl-Lipid Functionalized <i>N</i>-Acyl Homoserine Lactones as Modulators of Bacterial Cell–Cell Communication

  ACS Chemical Biology · 2025-02-13

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  We report silyl-lipid derivatives of N-acyl l-homoserine lactones (AHLs) that have nanomolar activities in LuxR-type quorum sensing receptors in Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. A collection of silyl-lipid AHLs were designed and synthesized to represent three general structural classes based on native AHL signals and synthetic LuxR-type receptor modulators. The synthetic routes feature straightforward hydrosilylation and aryl silylation reactions to access silyl-lipid groups that are not readily accessible in analogous all-carbon chemistry. Of the 17 compounds evaluated, eight silyl-lipid AHLs were identified with either nanomolar agonistic or submicromolar antagonistic activities in the LasR receptor from the common pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa using E. coli reporter gene assays. Several silyl-lipid AHL agonists retained high activities in LasR in a native P. aeruginosa reporter system and also were active in another related LuxR-type receptor, EsaR from Pantoea stewartii. Light scattering and computational experiments indicate that the silyl-lipid group can alter the aggregation capabilities and lipophilicities of AHLs relative to native all-carbon tails, engendering larger aggregate formation in water and higher lipophilicities on average. These properties, along with their strong activity profiles in LuxR-type receptors, suggest silyl-lipid AHLs could provide value as chemical probes to study the mechanisms of quorum sensing in Gram-negative bacteria and the roles of signal lipophilicity in this chemical communication process.

  PublisherDOI

• Multifunctional chiral silanol ligands for enantioselective catalysis

  Chemical Science · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We report transition metal catalysis using novel chiral metal-chelating ligands featuring a silanol coordinating group and peptide-like aminoamide scaffold. The catalytic properties of the silanol ligand are demonstrated through an enantioselective Cu-catalyzed N-H insertion affording unnatural amino acid derivatives in high selectivity. Our investigations into the silanol coordination mode include DFT calculations, ligand structure investigations, and X-ray structure analyses, which support the formation of an H-bond stabilized silanol-chelating copper carbenoid complex. A π-π stacking interaction revealed by DFT calculations is proposed to enable selectivity for aryl diazoacetate substrates, overcoming some of the traditional limitations of using these substrates.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Economic and environmental performance of microalgal energy products – A case study exploring circular bioeconomy principles applied to recycled anaerobic digester waste flows

  Journal of Environmental Management · 2024-04-09 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  This study quantifies the financial and environmental impacts of a microalgal bioenergy system that attempts to maximize circular flows by recovering and reusing the carbon, nutrients, and water within the system. The system produces microalgal biomass using liquid digestate of an anaerobic digester that processes 45 metric tons of food waste and generates 28.6 m3 of permeate daily in California, and three energy production scenarios from the biomass are considered: producing biodiesel, electricity, and both. In all scenarios, the resulting energy products delivered only modest reductions in environmental impacts as measured by carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. The carbon intensities (CIs) of biodiesel from this study were 91.0 gCO2e/MJ and 93.3 gCO2e/MJ, which were lower than 94.71 gCO2e/MJ of conventional petroleum diesel, and the CI of electricity from this study was 70.6 gCO2e/MJ, lower than the average electricity grid CI in California (82.92 gCO2e/MJ). The economic analysis results show that generating electricity alone can be profitable, while biodiesel produced via this system is not cost competitive with conventional diesel due to high capital expenses. Thus, generating electricity in lieu of biodiesel appears to be a better option to maximize the use of waste flows and supply lower-carbon energy.

  PublisherDOI

• Multifunctional Chiral Silanol Ligands for Enantioselective Catalysis

  ChemRxiv · 2024-06-17 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We report transition metal catalysis using novel chiral metal-chelating ligands featuring a silanol coordinating group and peptide-like aminoamide scaffold. The catalytic properties of the silanol ligands are demonstrated through an enantioselective Cu-catalyzed N−H insertion affording unnatural amino acid derivatives in high selectivity. Our investigations into the silanol coordination mode include DFT calculations, ligand analogs, NMR and X-ray structure analyses, which support the formation of an H-bond stabilized silanol-chelating copper carbenoid complex. A π-π stacking interaction revealed by DFT calculations is proposed to enable selectivity for aryl diazoacetate substrates, overcoming the traditional limitations of using these substrates.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Organocatalytic Asymmetric Synthesis of Si-Stereogenic Siloxanols

  ACS Catalysis · 2024-01-05 · 13 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  We report the organocatalytic synthesis of Si-stereogenic compounds via desymmetrization of a prochiral silanediol with a chiral imidazole-containing catalyst. This metal-free silylation method affords high yields with enantioselectivity up to 98:2 for various silanediol and silyl chloride substrate combinations (including secondary alkyl, vinyl, and H groups), accessing products with potential for further elaboration. NMR and X-ray studies reveal insight into the H-bonding interactions between the imidazole organocatalyst and the silanediol and the dual activating role of the Lewis basic imidazole to account for the high enantioselectivity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Carbon-Storing Structural Material Based on Wastewater-Cultivated <i>Chlorella Sorokiniana</i>

  Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part L Journal of Materials Design and Applications · 2024-09-05

  articleOpen access

  Microalgae cultivation is a promising technology for carbon sequestration and wastewater remediation. It is economically and logistically critical to find viable applications for the large quantities of produced biomass. In current research, a structural material is developed by using nearly 100% Chlorella sorokiniana . The otherwise non-cohesive microalgae cells are first surface-activated and then compacted under a relatively high pressure. The resulting material is a dense solid, stronger than typical steel-reinforced concrete in flexural tests. The processing procedure is simple and fast, and the setup is scalable. This technique may be useful for next-generation green construction and provide a use-case for sustainable microalgae biomass.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Growth potential of microalgae on ammonia-rich anaerobic digester effluent for wastewater remediation

  Algal Research · 2022-01-10 · 43 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Ligand-Accelerated Catalysis in Scandium(III)-Catalyzed Asymmetric Spiroannulation Reactions

  ACS Catalysis · 2022-03-03 · 6 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  A mechanism for the scandium-catalyzed asymmetric allylsilane annulation reaction is proposed and supported by reaction heat flow calorimetry, NMR, and in situ infrared spectroscopy. The nature of a scandium(III)–PyBox/BArF catalyst is probed using reaction calorimetric analysis, which reveals a complex interplay between in-solution and precipitated catalyst species. The scandium(III)–PyBox/BArF catalyst is minimally soluble until the addition of a bidentate electrophile. The optimal reaction rate is dependent on precomplexation of the catalyst, order of complexation of the catalyst components, and delayed addition of nucleophile. The formation of the active catalyst proceeds through a bimolecular combination of scandium(III) with a BArF anion, followed by complexation with PyBox ligand, where the ligand-dependent rate and selectivity are observed. Notably, ligand-accelerated catalysis is observed, attributed to the ligand reducing off-cycle oligomerization of allylsilane. The role of BArF is discussed with a specific focus on the source of counterion in the reaction rate and enantioselectivity. We also report the formation of a mechanistically relevant fused tetrahydropyranindole produced upon the reaction of an allylsilane with alkylidene oxindole. In situ infrared spectroscopy demonstrates ligand-dependent acceleration where sterically demanding ligands perform with a faster relative reaction rate.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• SusChEM: Design and Mechanistic Studies of Organic Silanols for Homogeneous Catalysis

  NSF · $468k · 2014–2017

• SusChEM:Characterization of oxidative stress response to improve microalgae-based biofuel production in wastewater

  NSF · $310k · 2015–2019

• CAREER: Synthesis and Study of Organic Silanols for Asymmetric Catalysis

  NSF · $550k · 2009–2014

• Enantioenriched Silanol and Siloxy Compounds as Catalysts and Ligands

  NSF · $565k · 2019–2023

• REU Site: UC Davis ChemEnergy Research Experience for Undergraduates in Energy and Catalysis

  NSF · $330k · 2016–2021

Frequent coauthors

• James C. Fettinger

  University of California, Davis

  46 shared

• Joseph J. Badillo

  Seton Hall University

  30 shared

• Ngon T. Tran

  DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory

  27 shared

• Nadine V. Hanhan

  University of California, Davis

  22 shared

• Nicolas R. Ball‐Jones

  University of California, Davis

  19 shared

• Sean O. Wilson

  University of California, Davis

  18 shared

• A.H. Sahin

  14 shared

• Benjamin H. Shupe

  University of California, Davis

  13 shared