Staff profile

Allegra Franchino is Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry at Durham University. Her group works on combining transition-metal catalysis, organocatalysis, ligand design and mechanistic studies for the stereoselective synthesis of added-value compounds. Since joining Durham, she has secured over €1.8m in funding as a PI, including a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.

Her name means Cheerful, and she is from the lake city of Como, in Northern Italy. She was trained in asymmetric catalysis, particularly using transition metals and bifunctional ligands, both during her BSc and MSc degrees at the University of Milan (Gennari–Pignataro group) and RWTH Aachen, and her doctoral studies at the University of Oxford under the guidance of Prof. Darren Dixon (2013–2017). After her PhD, she took a permanent post in a TEVA API-producing chemical plant near Milan, but soon missed academic research too much. Hence, in September 2018 she joined the Echavarren group at ICIQ, Spain, supported by a MSCA COFUND fellowship, opening a new research line merging gold and H-bond donor catalysis. She then spent a year at ETH Zurich in the Morandi lab, working on the skeletal editing of N-heterocycles and iron-catalysed amination reactions. In September 2022, she moved to Durham University as Assistant Professor. She was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2025. 

Franchino Group

As of February 2026, the group comprises 2 postdoctoral researchers, 3 PhD students and 2 Master students. To read about the team and our research, please visit franchinolab.com

Departmental Research Sections

Chemistry for Sustainability

Previously

• Catalysis and Sustainable Chemical Processes
• Bioactive Chemistry and Synthesis

Esteem indicators

Grant reviewer for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Leverhulme Trust, the French National Research Agency and the Polish National Science Centre. EPSRC panel member.

Peer reviewer for journals including Nature Catalysis, JACS and ACIE.

PhD examiner of 11 theses.

Since joining Durham, delivered over 15 invited lectures (list here).

Prizes and Awards

2025     Thieme Chemistry Journals Award presented every year to up-and-coming researchers worldwide who are in the early stages of their independent academic career 

2025     Kelly Cup for the most thought-provoking talk at the Gregynog Synthesis Workshop

2021     WILEY SCI Young Researcher Lecture Prize (€500) awarded by the Organometallic Group and the Organic Division of the Italian Chemical Society to emerging investigators below 35 years old

2017     Best talk prize (£200) at the 28^th SCI Postgraduate Symposium on Novel Organic Chemistry, Bath, competition where selected PhD students from Southern England presented their doctoral work

2013      Roche Continents 2013, Salzburg, Austria. Week-long workshop on creativity and innovation, entirely sponsored by Roche for 100 selected European participants

2012      Erasmus Scholarship (€1260) for a semester at RWTH Aachen, Germany

2008     National Italian Award for high school graduates (Albo delle Eccellenze, 100/100 cum laude Classical Diploma)

Fellowships and Funding

2026       Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (€3.4m, 03/2027–02/2030) - Coordinator

2026       Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (£205k, 10/2026–09/2028) - Supervisor

2026       EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account project with Chiesi Farmaceutici (£36k, 06/2026–01/2027) - PI

2024       UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (£1.52m, 01/2025–12/2028) - PI

2023       Royal Society Research Grant (£46k, 12/2023–05/2025) - PI

2023      NSERC Alliance International Catalyst Grant ($25k, 09/2023–08/2024). International Collaborator; PI: Dr Jolene Reid, University of British Columbia

2022      Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Postdoctoral Fellowship (€321k, ETH Zürich and MPI, Mülheim) - declined

2018      Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Postdoctoral Fellowship (€223k, ICIQ, Spain, 3 years)

2013      Marie Skłodowska-Curie PhD Fellowship at the University of Oxford, UK (€201k, 3 years)

Teaching

2025/2026 academic year

• Aromatic and heteroaromatic chemistry (year 2, 8 lectures) 
• Organic chemistry tutorials (year 2)
• Literature perspectives (year 3)
• BSc dissertations (year 3)
• MChem projects (year 4)

Previous teaching

• From alkenes to arenes and beyond (year 2, 13 lectures) 
• Enantioselective catalysis (year 4, 7 lectures)
• Organic chemistry tutorials (years 1 and 2)
• Teaching lab (year 1)

 

• Merging transition-metal and organocatalysis for selective synthesis
• Asymmetric catalysis targeting bioactive compounds, carbo- and heterocycles
• Design of bifunctional ligands and catalysts
• Non-covalent interactions and supramolecular systems
• Mechanistic studies of catalytic reactions (kinetics, modern physical organic chemistry, NMR spectroscopy)

Journal Article

• Anthracene Bisurea as a Supramolecular Chloride Receptor for Additive-Free, Broad-Scope Gold(I) Catalysis.
  
  Parolin, R., Blundell, T. J., & Franchino, A. (2026). Anthracene Bisurea as a Supramolecular Chloride Receptor for Additive-Free, Broad-Scope Gold(I) Catalysis. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 65(7), Article e23431. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202523431
• Azide-Free Synthesis of N-Alkyliminophosphoranes from Phosphines and Hydroxylamine Derivatives
  
  Falk, E., Franchino, A., Horak, T., Gürtler, L., & Morandi∗, B. (2023). Azide-Free Synthesis of N-Alkyliminophosphoranes from Phosphines and Hydroxylamine Derivatives. Organic Letters, 25(10), 1695-1700. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.orglett.3c00366
• Late-stage diversification of indole skeletons through nitrogen atom insertion
  
  Reisenbauer†, J., Green†, O., Franchino, A., Finkelstein, P., & Morandi∗, B. (2022). Late-stage diversification of indole skeletons through nitrogen atom insertion. Science, 377. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add1383
• H-Bonded counterion-directed enantioselective Au(I) catalysis
  
  Franchino, A., Martí, À., & Echavarren∗, A. (2022). H-Bonded counterion-directed enantioselective Au(I) catalysis. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 144. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c11978
• H-Bonded counterion-directed catalysis: Enantioselective gold(I)-catalyzed addition to 2-alkynyl enones as a case study
  
  Martí, À., Montesinos-Magraner, M., Echavarren∗, A., & Franchino∗, A. (2022). H-Bonded counterion-directed catalysis: Enantioselective gold(I)-catalyzed addition to 2-alkynyl enones as a case study. European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 38. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.202200518
• Silver-free Au(I) catalysis enabled by bifunctional urea- and squaramide-phosphine ligands via H-bonding
  
  Franchino∗, A., Martí, À., Nejrotti, S., & Echavarren∗, A. (2021). Silver-free Au(I) catalysis enabled by bifunctional urea- and squaramide-phosphine ligands via H-bonding. Chemistry - A European Journal, 27. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202101751
• Gold-catalyzed synthesis of small rings
  
  Mato†, M., Franchino†, A., García-Morales†, C., & Echavarren∗, A. (2021). Gold-catalyzed synthesis of small rings. Chemical Reviews, 121. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00697
• Silver-free catalysis with gold(I) chloride complexes
  
  Franchino, A., Montesinos-Magraner, M., & Echavarren∗, A. (2021). Silver-free catalysis with gold(I) chloride complexes. Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan, 94. https://doi.org/10.1246/bcsj.20200358
• Catalytic enantio- and diastereoselective Mannich addition of TosMIC to ketimines
  
  Franchino, A., Chapman, J., Funes-Ardoiz, I., Paton∗, R., & Dixon∗, D. (2018). Catalytic enantio- and diastereoselective Mannich addition of TosMIC to ketimines. Chemistry - A European Journal, 24. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201804099
• α-Alkylation of ketimines using visible light photoredox catalysis
  
  Franchino, A., Rinaldi, A., & Dixon∗, D. (2017). α-Alkylation of ketimines using visible light photoredox catalysis. RSC Advances, 7. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ra09248b
• Enantioselective synthesis of (–)-chloramphenicol via silver-catalysed asymmetric isocyanoacetate aldol reaction
  
  Franchino, A., Jakubec, P., & Dixon∗, D. (2016). Enantioselective synthesis of (–)-chloramphenicol via silver-catalysed asymmetric isocyanoacetate aldol reaction. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 14. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5ob02141c
• Catalytic enantio- and diastereoselective Mannich reaction of α-substituted isocyanoacetates and ketimines
  
  De La Campa, R., Gammack Yamagata, A., Ortín, I., Franchino, A., Thompson, A., Odell, B., & Dixon∗, D. (2016). Catalytic enantio- and diastereoselective Mannich reaction of α-substituted isocyanoacetates and ketimines. Chemical Communications, 52. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cc04132a
• Direct catalytic asymmetric doubly vinylogous Michael addition of α,β-unsaturated γ-butyrolactams to dienones
  
  Gu, X., Guo, T., Dai, Y., Franchino, A., Fei, J., Zou, C., Dixon∗, D., & Ye∗, J. (2015). Direct catalytic asymmetric doubly vinylogous Michael addition of α,β-unsaturated γ-butyrolactams to dienones. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 54. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201504276
• A general, scalable, organocatalytic nitro-Michael addition to enones: Enantioselective access to all-carbon quaternary stereocenters
  
  Gu, X., Dai, Y., Guo, T., Franchino, A., Dixon∗, D., & Ye∗, J. (2015). A general, scalable, organocatalytic nitro-Michael addition to enones: Enantioselective access to all-carbon quaternary stereocenters. Organic Letters, 17. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.orglett.5b00387