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Naphthalene rings are common in drug candidates but suffer from metabolic liabilities and limited three-dimensionality. Aryl-fused bicyclo[3.1.1]heptanes (BCHeps) have been presented as derivatizable bioisosteres of β-naphthalene. Now it has been shown that aryl-fused BCHeps can be synthesized and validated as viable naphthyl replacements with promising structural and drug-like properties.

Peroxiredoxins from diverse organisms were found to assemble into hybrid complexes, not just identical ones. These mixed assemblies reshape structure and stability, challenging a long-held view of peroxiredoxin assembly in cells.

Arsenic’s dual nature—both beneficial and toxic—has long challenged its practical use in chemistry. Now it has been shown that photoredox catalysis can directly convert arsenic sulfide minerals into diverse organoarsenicals, bypassing hazardous intermediates and offering a safe, sustainable and scalable route to functionalized arsenicals.

The precise manipulation of unfunctionalized hydrocarbons remains a fundamental challenge in chemical synthesis and catalysis. Here an organocatalytic asymmetric hydroxylation of bicyclobutanes with alcohols is disclosed, enabling efficient access to tertiary cyclopropylcarbinyl ethers with high enantioselectivity (up to 98:2 e.r.).

Spinster homolog 2 (SPNS2) exports sphingosine-1- 26 phosphate (S1P) out of cells. Here, the authors show that SPNS2 has antiporter-like activity, exporting S1P while importing glucose, revealing a mechanism linking SPNS2 to glucose homeostasis with clinical implications.

Benzofurazan, a cyclic heterocycle, can form open-chain metal carbene species in the presence of suitable catalysts. Here the authors show divergent reactivity when using gold(III) and platinum(II) catalysts, and perform computational and experimental mechanistic studies to explain the differing reactivity

Methods to allow access to all isomers of a product are both valuable and challenging to achieve. Here the authors report a catalytic system comprised of an N-heterocyclic carbene and an iridium complex, and show that it can be used for the asymmetric, diastereodivergent synthesis of γ-butyrolactones.

Cultivation of tropical soil microorganisms combined with physiological experiments and bioinformatics analyses identify a family of clade III lactonase-type nitrous oxide reductases with low sequence identity but high 3D structural similarity to known nitrous oxide reductases.

Saturated, three-dimensional scaffolds are key in modern drug discovery, and highly strained rings serve as privileged building blocks for their synthesis. Now, by tailoring the substitution patterns of 1,4-precursors, the authors suppress the competing di-π-methane rearrangement, enabling an efficient and divergent synthesis of highly strained housanes via an intramolecular [2 + 2] cycloaddition.

Ring-expanding carbon-atom insertion reactions are currently limited to the installation of few functional groups. Now researchers show the use of a radical carbyne precursor for the insertion of carbon atoms bearing varied functional groups to access 2-substituted naphthalenes from indene.

Photochemical nitrene transfer offers a green avenue for heterocyclic syntheses. Here, the authors developed a metal-free, visible light-mediated cascade reaction for the preparation of azepinone derivatives.

1,3-Disubstituted bicyclo[1.1.1]pentanes are linear bioisosteres for para-substituted benzene rings; however, the lack of practical reagents for the introduction of bicyclopentane currently impedes their application, especially in drug development. Now, stable thianthrenium-based bicyclopentane reagents are reported and their use in O-, N- and C-alkylation reactions demonstrated.

Azoxy products have rarely been synthesized using enzyme catalysts. Herein, the authors report that fungal unspecific peroxygenases are promising catalysts for synthesizing azoxy products from simple aniline starting materials.

An analysis of rare disease cohorts from the UK, the USA, Italy and the Netherlands identifies a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by biallelic variants in RNU2-2. Individuals with this disorder have substantially reduced levels of U2-2 small nuclear RNA in blood.

Thiophene S,S-dioxides are excellent substrates for cycloaddition reactions, but underused in target-oriented synthesis. Here the authors show how these heterocycles enable the asymmetric synthesis of tricyclic indolines, as well as the collective synthesis of the iconic Strychnos alkaloids. Computational studies rationalize the source of asymmetry and reveal a spontaneous SO₂ extrusion pathway.

During the last glacial, subsurface warming off of Dronning Maud Land and weakened stratification promoted a large polynya, releasing heat and moisture that may have increased Antarctic snowfall and ice growth.

Complex reaction networks can reach out-of-equilibrium steady states with multiple product-determining steps. Now it has been shown that a four-component photochemical network enables selective GlcNAc-to-GalNAc epimerization. Boronic ester co-catalysis tunes hydrogen-atom abstraction and donation to enhance site selectivity and diastereoselectivity, illustrating kinetic network control for selective catalysis.

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of stable, acyclic N-stereogenic amines by the addition of enol silanes to nitronium ions that ion pair to a confined chiral anion is described.

α,β-Unsaturated δ-lactones (AUDLs) such as fostriecin are key pharmacophores of various reduced polyketides exhibiting potent biological activity, so elucidation of their biosynthesis is of interest. Here, the authors determine the enzymatic steps responsible for AUDL formation in fostriecin biosynthesis and that the terminal polyketide synthase module FosMod8 produces a 3-O-malonyllactone by the unusual bifunctional thioesterase FosTE, which catalyses O-malonylation and subsequent lactonisation.

Palladium-catalysed allylic substitution is a widely used method in organic synthesis, although it requires prefunctionalized starting materials or stoichiometric oxidants. Here the authors report a radical route to form π-allylpalladium complexes, and develop a 1,4-aminoalkylation of dienes under redox-neutral conditions.

Machine learning coarse-grained models are a tool for efficient simulation of biomolecular systems but need large amounts of data to train. Here, the authors present a training scheme integrating denoising objectives for stable force field training with less data requirements.

Gold redox catalysis is an attractive synthetic method but challenging due to the high redox potential of Au(I)/Au(III). Now, a bidentate N-ligand-assisted gold redox catalysis using H₂O₂ as oxidant has been developed. It can be applied to various coupling reactions, including C(sp)–C(sp) cross-coupling, alkynylative cyclization and bicyclization coupling.

Graph neural networks used in molecular modelling cannot represent long-range interactions critical to dispersion forces and electrostatic effects. Here, the authors introduce RANGE, an attention-based framework for predicting long-range collective molecular behaviour even in out-of-distribution regimes.

Biochemical and structural studies show that the bacterial dGTPase CloA is activated by virally produced dTTP and inhibited by 5′-triphosphothymidyl-3′5′-thymidine produced by its regulatory partner CloB, and thereby balances antiviral defence and immune-mediated toxicity.

STM investigations and first principles calculations provide an understanding of the microscopic mechanism behind the mobility of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) on gold surfaces. Now, it is shown that a ballbot-type motion allows the formation of self-assembled monolayers due to the NHC extracting a gold atom from the surface, leading to a ligated gold adatom.

Hydrocarbons are challenging to functionalize. Here, the authors present an electrochemical oxo-functionalization of cyclic alkanes and alkenes to ketones and dicarboxylic acids via mediating nitrate-based supporting electrolyte and molecular oxygen.

This work challenges the view of nucleation governing halide perovskite grain morphology, showing that most additives act post-nucleation by boosting ion mobility across grain boundaries, triggering grain coarsening, similar to post-processing effects.

The synthesis, structure and reactivity of room-temperature-stable [Cp(C₆F₅)₅]⁺[Sb₃F₁₆]⁻ is presented. Coordination of the cyclopentadienyl cation by [Sb₃F₁₆]⁻ or C₆F₆ stabilizes the antiaromatic singlet state in the solid state. Calculated hydride and fluoride ion affinities of the [Cp(C₆F₅)₅]⁺ cation are higher than those of the tritylium cation [C(C₆F₅)₃]⁺.

The ability to rapidly functionalize polymers is vital for application development. Here, a method for the introduction of masked ketenes into monomers for both ring-opening metathesis and radical-type polymerizations is described. These ketenes — a group previously underexploited in polymer chemistry — allow both crosslinking and post-polymerization functionalization of the polymers.

Ketyl radicals can be used in a range of reactions, but their generation often requires harsh conditions and a large excess of reductants. Now, a multicomponent, palladium-photocatalysed reaction between aldehydes, 1,3-butadiene and N, S, O and C nucleophiles to build architecturally complex homoallylic alcohols is reported wherein ketyl-type radicals are generated under mild conditions.

Wu et al. report a strategy of incorporating either Dion-Jacobson phase or Ruddlesden-Popper phase ferroelectric perovskite with FAPbI₃ to form bulk heterojunctions, increasing the open-circuit voltage-fill factor product and enabling single junction solar cells with an efficiency of 26.62%.

Heteroatom-substituted C(sp³)-rich polycyclic hydrocarbon rings, isosteric to heterocyclic rings, are not common due to the challenging synthesis. Now a photoredox-catalysed strategy to insert amidyl radicals into bicyclo[1.1.0]butanes is presented, providing direct access to 2-oxa-4-azabicyclo[3.1.1]hept-3-enes.

Phosphatidylserine-exposing extracellular vesicles in body fluids can inhibit infection of viruses that use viral apoptotic mimicry for infection, but not viruses that use other entry mechanisms.

Hydrogen oxidation in alkaline media is limited by slow reaction kinetics. Here, the authors develop a family of bimetallic catalysts by theoretical analysis and reveal that RuIr achieves superior activity and durability through synergistic adsorption of hydrogen and hydroxyl intermediates.

Evaluation of foraminiferal test dissolution by Computed Tomography scanner provided deep seawater carbonate ion concentration at the Southern Ocean. Quantitative data highlighted the reconfiguration of glacial to deglacial carbon storage followed by oceanic-atmospheric CO2 transfer.

Hydrogenation is one of the most common catalytic processes on both laboratory and industrial scales, and typically is carried out with a noble metal catalyst. Here, the authors show that alkaline earth metal amides are capable of hydrogenating imines under mild conditions.

A strain-release approach, realized by visible-light-mediated triplet energy transfer catalysis, enabled an intermolecular [2π+2σ]-photocycloaddition.

GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) often contain regulatory PH domains. In this work, Soubias et al, using an integrated structure-function approach, discovered a mechanism where a GAP PH domain binds directly to a GTPase to induce allosteric changes facilitating GTP hydrolysis.

The reversible N–H activation and catalytic transformations of ammonia are a challenge. Now, a hidden frustrated Lewis pair is shown to activate non-aqueous ammonia thermoneutrally and split the N–H bond reversibly at ambient temperature. The N–H-activated ammonia was also utilized as an atom-economical nitrogen source for catalytic NH₃ transfer reactions.

Mononuclear complexes of certain lanthanide ions are known to have large magnetization reversal barriers caused by strong spin–orbit coupling. Now, careful tuning of the ligand field of a transition metal complex has engendered a comparable spin-reversal barrier — and in turn magnetic blocking at 4.5 K.

Understanding nanoparticle catalysis is limited by complex structure–activity links. This study reveals that Pt corner sites on 1–1.5 nm particles drive activity via electronic effects, offering a rare quantitative insight into water gas shift catalytic performance.