Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Click chemistry connections for functional discovery

Nature Synthesis volume 1, pages 8–10 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

The organizing principles of click chemistry help scientists make molecules for a variety of applications. Such democratization of synthesis is challenging and rewarding, as useful simplicity is difficult to achieve. We reflect on this and look forward, hoping to continue to tie the joy of functional discovery to the challenges of synthetic chemistry.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Triazole and sulfur(VI) connectors emblematic of click chemistry.

References

  1. Kolb, H. C., Finn, M. G. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 40, 2004–2021 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hoyle, C. E. & Bowman, C. N. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 49, 1540–1573 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kade, M. J., Burke, D. J. & Hawker, C. J. J. Polym. Sci. A1 48, 743–750 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rostovtsev, V. V., Green, L. G., Fokin, V. V. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 41, 2596–2599 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Manetsch, R. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 12809–12818 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Narayan, S. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 3275–3279 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Dong, J., Krasnova, L., Finn, M. G. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 9430–9448 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Li, S. et al. Nat. Chem. 13, 858–867 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Jang, K.-J. et al. Nanomaterials 11, 318 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Meng, G. et al. Nature 574, 86–91 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Horne, W. S., Yadav, M. K., Stout, C. D. & Ghadiri, M. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 15356–15367 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Valverde, I. E. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 8957–8960 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Kukwikila, M., Gale, N., El-Sagheer, A. H., Brown, T. & Tavassoli, A. Nat. Chem. 9, 1089–1098 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Li, S. H., Wu, P., Moses, J. E. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 2903–2908 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Kislukhin, A. A., Higginson, C. J., Hong, V. P. & Finn, M. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 6491–6497 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Shieh, P., Hill, M. R., Zhang, W., Kristufek, S. L. & Johnson, J. A. Chem. Rev. 121, 7059–7121 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Wang, Q. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 3192–3193 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Kolb, H. C. & Sharpless, K. B. Drug Discov. Today 8, 1128–1137 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Mocharla, V. P. et al. ChemMedChem 8, 43–48 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Zheng, Q. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 18808–18814 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Agnew, H. D. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48, 4944–4948 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We dedicate this article to the late Richard A. Lerner, who made click chemistry possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    M. G. Finn

  2. Neuroscience Biomarkers and Janssen R&D Global Imaging, Johnson & Johnson, San Diego, CA, USA

    Hartmuth C. Kolb

  3. Department of Chemistry, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA

    K. Barry Sharpless

Authors
  1. M. G. Finn
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hartmuth C. Kolb
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. Barry Sharpless
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. Barry Sharpless.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Finn, M.G., Kolb, H.C. & Sharpless, K.B. Click chemistry connections for functional discovery. Nat Synth 1, 8–10 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-021-00017-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-021-00017-w

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing