• Organometallic chemistry
• Small molecule crystallography

In his role as an Industrial Scientist of the Industry Services Group, Denis Spasyuk is responsible for industrial macromolecular crystallography and small molecule crystallography programs at the CLS. He works closely with colleagues of varying backgrounds to provide the industry with tools essential for drug discovery and molecular structure elucidation. 

Denis has always been passionate about science. His interests lay in a broad range of natural sciences from chemistry to biology and from engineering to computer science. Following the completion of his Ph.D. in Chemistry centered around organometallic chemistry and crystallography at the Universite de Montreal, Denis completed two postdoctoral fellowships at Wilfred Laurier University and the University of Calgary. In his scientific career he has contributed to over 50 scientific publications and patents. With over 15 years of experience in chemistry and crystallography, Denis helps industrial clients from all over the world with tackling the most important problems in chemistry and biology using Canada’s only synchrotron accelerator.

When he is not at the CLS, you will find Denis biking on the many paths that Saskatoon has to offer. 

Nurdin, L.; Spasyuk, D.; Piers, W. and Maron, L. (2017). Reactions of neutral cobalt(II) complexes of a dianionic tetrapodal pentadentate ligand: Cobalt(III) amides from imido radicals. Inorganic Chemistry 56(7), 4157-4168. 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b00174

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Fard, Z.H.; Kalinovskyy, Y.; Spasyuk, D.M.; Blight, B.A. and Shimizu, G.K.H. (2016). Alkaline-earth phosphate MOFs with reversible hydration-dependent fluorescence. Chemical Communications (52), 12865-12868. 10.1039/c6cc06490f

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Gusev, Dmitry G. and Spasyuk, Denis M. (2018). Revised mechanisms for aldehyde disproportionation and the related reactions of the Shvo catalyst. ACS Catalysis 8, 6851-6861. 10.1021/acscatal.8b01153

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Zurakowski, Joseph A.; Bhattacharyya, Moulika; Spasyuk, Denis M. and Drover, Marcus W. (2021). Octaboraneyl [Ni(H)(diphosphine)2]+ complexes: Exploiting phosphine ligand lability for hydride transfer to an [NAD]+ model. Inorganic Chemistry 60(1), 37-41. 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c03409

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Purdy, Sarah Kendra; Spasyuk, Denis; Chitanda, Jackson Mulenga and Reaney, Martin J.T. (2020). [1–9-NαC]-Linusorb B3 (Cyclolinopeptide A) dimethyl sulfoxide monosolvate. IUCr Data 5, x200318. 10.1107/S2414314620003181

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Hogan, David T.; Gelfand, Benjamin S.; Spasyuk, Denis M. and Sutherland, Todd C. (2019). Subtle substitution controls the rainbow chromatic behaviour of multi-stimuli responsive core-expanded pyrenes. Materials Chemistry Frontiers (4), 268-276. 10.1039/C9QM00710E

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Dmitrienko, Anton; Britten, James F.; Spasyuk, Denis M. and Nikonov, Georgii I. (2020). Adduct of NacNacAl with benzophenone and its coupling chemistry. Chemistry: A European Journal (26), 206-211. 10.1002/chem.201904775

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Kassymbek, Aishabibi; Britten, James F.; Spasyuk, Denis; Gabidullin, Bulat and Nikonov, Georgii I. (2019). Interaction of multiple bonds with NacNacGa: Oxidative cleavage vs coupling and cyclization. Inorganic Chemistry 58(13), 8665-8672. 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b01005

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Lal, Garima; Derakhshandeh, Maziar; Akhtar, Farid; Spasyuk, Denis M.; Lin, Jian-Bin; Trifkovic, Milana and Shimizu, George K.H. (2019). Mechanical properties of a metal-organic framework formed by covalent cross-linking of metal-organic polyhedra. Journal of American Chemical Society 141(2), 1045-1053. 10.1021/jacs.8b11527

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Nurdin, Lucie; Spasyuk, Denis M.; Fairburn, Laura; Piers, Warren E. and Maron, Laurent. (2018). Oxygen-Oxygen Bond Cleavage and Formation in Co(II)-Mediated Stoichiometric O2 Reduction via the Potential Intermediacy of a Co(IV) Oxyl Radical. Journal of the American Chemical Society 140(47), 16094-16105. 10.1021/jacs.8b07726

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Wang, Zisu; Spasyuk, Denis M. and Baumgartner, Thomas. (2018). On the reactivity of P-chloro dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]phosphole oxide. Canadian Journal of Chemistry 96, 555-560. 10.1139/cjc-2017-0619

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Gendy, Chris; Spasyuk, Denis; Harrison, Alexander and Roesler, Roland. (2018). Molybdenum and nickel atrane complexes with a rigid tripodal tetraphosphine ligand incorporating imidazole rings. Inorganica Chimica Acta 475, 150-154. 10.1016/j.ica.2017.10.017