Reviews & Analysis

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  • Effective separations underpin actinide science and technologies. Here, we provide an overview of six recently reported approaches.

    • Appie Peterson
    • Jennifer N. Wacker
    Year in Review
  • Peptide stapling has traditionally relied on the incorporation of unnatural amino acids and symmetric stapling. A recent article targets a typically inert C–H bond within the serine side chain, offering new avenues for conformational control and side chain engineering.

    • Fa-Jie Chen
    News & Views
  • The four core effects of high-entropy alloys are discussed and greater insights are presented. These clarifications are helpful in understanding materials from low entropy (simple two-component or three-component alloys) to high entropy (five components or greater), and in general materials design.

    • Wei-Lin Hsu
    • Che-Wei Tsai
    • Jien-Wei Yeh
    Perspective
  • Substantial progress in halide chemicals and redox mechanisms has spawned a boom in halogen-powered static conversion batteries. This Review tracks the natural benefits and intricate redox behaviour of halogen conversion chemistry, highlighting its pivotal role in electrochemical energy storage.

    • Xinliang Li
    • Wenyu Xu
    • Chunyi Zhi
    Review Article
  • Radiopharmaceuticals are becoming an essential tool in the fight against cancer, and the field has been diversified with the investigation of f-block elements over the past decade. Here we discuss the highlights in 2023 research leading the charge in utilizing f-block elements in innovative ways, changing how we treat these diseases.

    • Alex Rigby
    • Trevor Arino
    Year in Review
  • Biological assays are essential to pharmaceutical, agrochemical and cosmetics research. However, false readouts pose substantial challenges in screening small molecules. This Review explores the current methods for tackling assay interference, focusing on computational approaches and their integration with experimental methods.

    • Lu Tan
    • Steffen Hirte
    • Johannes Kirchmair
    Review Article
  • Cutting-edge chemistry is often performed in non-atmospheric conditions. Continued development of the Chemputer platform now enables the utilization of sensitive compounds in automated synthetic protocols.

    • Babak A. Mahjour
    • Connor W. Coley
    News & Views
  • A highly chemoselective method for the insertion of carbohydrates into existing oligosaccharides has been developed. The reaction sequence involves a selective Lewis-acid catalysed cleavage of one glycosidic bond followed by sequential construction of two new glycosidic bonds.

    • Sugyeom Kim
    • George A. O’Doherty
    News & Views
  • Peptide stapling is a powerful technique used to lock peptide conformations and modulate peptide functions. This Review highlights the newest development in non-symmetric stapling of native peptides bearing natural amino acids, elucidating current advances, challenges and future opportunities.

    • Fa-Jie Chen
    • Wanzhen Lin
    • Fen-Er Chen
    Review Article
  • The use of water for electrochemical hydrogenation and oxidation of organic species provides a sustainable route for synthesizing chemicals. The electrode types, general electrocatalyst selection principles and interface microenvironment control are elucidated, conducive to designing efficient electrocatalysts and reaction systems.

    • Cuibo Liu
    • Fanpeng Chen
    • Bin Zhang
    Review Article
  • Organic-based triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion-mediated photochemical reactions utilize low-energy photons to obtain high-energy excited states leading to notable advancements in photoredox catalysis, photoactivation, 3D printing and immunotherapy. Classifications, design principles, challenges and possible solutions are discussed in this Review.

    • Ling Huang
    • Gang Han
    Review Article
  • Targeted covalent inhibitors (TCIs) can react irreversibly with lysine in kinases and other proteins. Small molecule TCIs can have both broad or specific lysine targeting whereas peptide- and protein-based TCIs were shown to provide high target specificity for lysines in shallow protein surfaces.

    • Ana Koperniku
    • Nicholas A. Meanwell
    Year in Review
  • Anion recognition in competitive, aqueous media remains a critical challenge. Bulk and local solvation models for anion recognition events are herein explored, as well as targeted design approaches to retain strong anion binding in highly polar media.

    • Sophie C. Patrick
    • Paul D. Beer
    • Jason J. Davis
    Review Article
  • JWST collects vast amounts of information about exoplanets light years away from Earth. Back home, the measured optical constants of laboratory aerosols are critically input parameters in models to interpret the observational results.

    • Ella Sciamma-O’Brien
    • Thomas Drant
    • Nicholas Wogan
    News & Views
  • Gold catalysts have attracted attention for their ability to activate hydrogen towards the hydrogenation of organic molecules. This Review explores strategies to enhance hydrogen–gold interactions to help design new efficient hydrogenation catalysts.

    • Nikolaos Dimitratos
    • Gianvito Vilé
    • Robert Wojcieszak
    Review Article
  • Electrochemical devices enable clean energy technologies such as hydrogen cells, batteries and solar fuels. Their design is hindered by incomplete information about the electrochemical interface during operation. Complementary optoelectronic probes offer a path to improved mechanistic insights into such interfaces.

    • Ernest Pastor
    • Zan Lian
    • F. Pelayo García de Arquer
    Review Article
  • The unique properties of selenium have been exploited in protein science. This Review highlights the recent applications of selenium chemistry in protein chemical synthesis, modification, folding, stabilization, the preparation of therapeutic proteins and more.

    • Zhenguang Zhao
    • Shay Laps
    • Norman Metanis
    Review Article
  • DNA has emerged as an attractive substrate for molecular information processing. This Review explores the application of DNA for computing and data storage, as well as the route to integrate these fields.

    • Shuo Yang
    • Bas W. A. Bögels
    • Tom F. A. de Greef
    Review Article