Research Profile

After having speeded-up the Amsterdam Density Functional code with the parallelization and linearization, my focus became the molecule of life: DNA. The main emphasis throughout my research is on the nature and role of the hydrogen bond in the genetic code. The cooperativity, the π assistance and also the substituent effects in Watson-Crick base pairs, DNA mismatches and DNA quartets give an enormous insight in the nature of the hydrogen bond, which is weak but of utmost importance in nature. The development and the implementation of chemical analyses methods, such as the Voronoi Deformation Density charges, to understand nature of the hydrogen bonds and general chemical bonding are part of my investigations. I am also interested in fundamental as well as industrial reaction mechanisms involving carbon and silicon chemistry.

For a publication analysis, go to my ResearcherID published by Thomson Reuters and click on Citation Metrics.

News and Information

Appointed as Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit.

Just accepted: C. Fonseca Guerra et al.
Telomere Structure and Stability: Covalency in Hydrogen Bonds, Not Resonance Assistance, Causes Cooperativity in Guanine Quartets. Chem. Eur. J., 2011, 17, 12612-12622.

Last update: 17 January 2012

Selected Publications

1. C. Fonseca Guerra, H. Zijlstra, G. Paragi, F. M. Bickelhaupt.
Telomere Structure and Stability: Covalency in Hydrogen Bonds, Not Resonance Assistance, Causes Cooperativity in Guanine Quartets.
Chem. Eur. J. 2011, 17, 12612-12622.

2. C. Fonseca Guerra, Z. Szekeres, F. M. Bickelhaupt
Remote Communication in DNA-Based Nanoswitch.
Chem. Eur. J. 2011, 17, 8816-8818. (communication).

3. C. Fonseca Guerra, T. van der Wijst, J. Poater, M. Swart, F. M. Bickelhaupt
Adenine versus Guanine Quartets in Aqueous Solution. Dispersion-Corrected DFT Study on the Differences in π-Stacking and Hydrogen-Bonding Behavior.
Theor. Chem. Acc. 2010, 125, 245-252.

4. T. van der Wijst, C. Fonseca Guerra, M. Swart, F. M. Bickelhaupt, B. Lippert
A Ditopic Ion-Pair Receptor Based on Stacked Nucleobase Quartets.
Angew. Chem. 2009, 121, 3335-3337;
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 3285-3287.

5. C. Fonseca Guerra, J.-W. Handgraaf, E. J. Baerends, F. M. Bickelhaupt
Voronoi Deformation Density (VDD) charges. Assessment of the Mulliken, Bader, Hirshfeld, Weinhold and VDD methods for Charge Analysis.
J. Comput. Chem. 2004, 25, 189-210.

Feel free to ask me for a reprint.