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In 1993, a new route for the synthesis of semiconductor nanocrystals was reported that exploited organometallic chemistry to afford nearly monodisperse particles. 30 years later the award of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry can be directly traced to this single publication.
Improving zinc–air batteries is challenging due to kinetics and limited electrochemical reversibility, partly attributed to sluggish four-electron redox chemistry. Now, substantial strides are noted with two-electron redox chemistry and catalysts, resulting in unprecedentedly stable zinc–air batteries with 61% energy efficiencies.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thirty-four years ago, Curry and Rumelhart described a neural network-based approach to annotate tandem mass spectra. Their ideas foreshadowed several important developments in computational mass spectrometry over the past decade, but many of the challenges they discuss remain relevant today.
A decade ago, Zaworotko and co-workers engaged the principles of crystal engineering to demonstrate that narrow-pore (<0.7 nm) coordination networks are ideal sorbent platforms for small-molecule sorbates. This approach transformed sorbent design for such separations and has provided several performance benchmarks in trace gas capture-enabled purifications.
Free energy calculations have great potential to accelerate drug discovery projects by predicting relative protein–ligand binding affinities. But how accurate are these predictions and how accurate can they become? A recent report assesses the state of the art in such calculations and compares it to experimental approaches.
Seventy years ago, Stanley L. Miller described the synthesis of amino acids from a simple mixture of gases, spurring investigations into the chemical origins of life. Here we discuss the rise, fall and renaissance of endogenous amino acid production.
Late-stage modification of peptides with photoactivatable groups often weakens their binding interaction with target proteins. Now, this challenge has been addressed using large libraries of cyclic peptides with photocrosslinkers incorporated prior to screening.
The synthesis of MXenes is generally constrained by poorly understood and largely uncontrollable chemical reactions. Now, with the use of chemical scissors and guest intercalants, new MXenes have been created with finely tuned microstructures, compositions and surface ligands.
Informatics approaches play an increasingly important role in accelerating the advances of modern materials science. A recent study reports the development of predictive machine learning models to guide the de novo design of through-space charge transfer polymers with full-colour-tunable emission.
The interactions of lipid bilayer cell membranes with liquid biomolecular condensates are key to many biological processes, including endocytosis. New research shows a model system of liposomes that are able to engulf droplets, effectively mimicking endocytosis.
Twenty five years ago, Christopher Lipinski and colleagues published arguably the most influential sentence in small-molecule drug discovery. Their cleverly crafted ‘rule of 5’ (Ro5) mnemonic was adopted into everyday medicinal chemistry practice and has influenced a generation of small-molecule drug discovery scientists. Five times five years later, we consider the impact of the Ro5 and ask to what extent it should still guide today’s medicinal chemistry efforts.
In 1997, Kneipp et al. and Nie and Emory independently reported the first examples of single-molecule detection using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). These seminal works sparked a surge of interest in SERS, while introducing a new question: how can it be conclusively proven that just one molecule is being probed?
Ten years ago, the engineering of a small luciferase called NanoLuc broke through a common limitation of bioluminescence. Currently the brightest known bioluminescent protein, NanoLuc’s activity has been used across a huge application range — enabling measurements in single cells and in whole living organisms.
The application of computational tools in the study of natural products continues its inexorable rise. A recent report describing an asymmetric total synthesis of resveratrol oligomers provides an example in which computation played an integral role.