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A fresh twist on a classic chemical reaction widely used for organic synthesis avoids the use of dangerously unstable compounds — a huge benefit for chemists.

C–H functionalization is a key reaction in organic synthesis. Now a selenoxide reagent has been developed for the formation of arylselenonium salts via C–H functionalization of DNA conjugates with high selectivity. The arylselenonium salts participate in various transformations to forge new C–C and C–X bonds.

The lack of stable and versatile bicyclo[1.1.1]pentyl reagents hinders their broader adoption as aryl bioisosteres in drug discovery. Now, a stable, bifunctional iodobicyclo[1.1.1]pentylmethyl thianthrenium (IBM-TT⁺) reagent is developed for modular bicyclo[1.1.1]pentane bioisostere production.

Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling between (hetero)aryl (pseudo)halides and base-sensitive and Lewis-basic (hetero)arylboronic acids is challenging, owing to potential side reactions and catalyst poisoning. Now, the Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling of arylthianthrenium salts with (hetero)arylboronic acids, under acidic conditions, is reported, enabling the efficient coupling of base-sensitive and Lewis-basic (hetero)arylboronic acids.

Photoredox-catalysed coupling of electron-rich aryl electrophiles based on simple nickel salts usually suffers from a slow oxidative addition. Now, it is shown that thianthrenation leads to more favourable redox properties of the substrates, alleviating this problem in carbon–heteroatom bond-forming reactions.

An approach for the direct electrophilic C–H fluorination of arenes is reported, using a palladium catalyst and mild fluorinating reagents.

Hydrofunctionalization of α-olefins with mineral acids usually proceeds with Markovnikov selectivity. Now, a strategy based on synergistic phase transfer and photoredox catalysis is developed to facilitate anti-Markovnikov addition of aqueous hydrochloric and nitric acid to unactivated alkenes.

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.

Cross-coupling reactions between aryl halides and alcohols using copper are challenging due to the energetically demanding oxidative addition of copper into aryl halides. Now, this high-barrier step is bypassed using an energy transfer or direct excitation strategy for copper-mediated cross-coupling reactions. This process enables the use of aryl chlorides as electrophiles and alcohols, amines and fluoride as nucleophilic coupling partners.

Intermolecular cyclization reactions using nitrogen-containing building blocks are scarce. Now, bifunctional sulfilimines have been shown to enable the modular construction of a diverse range of N-heterocycles by reacting with alkenes in a single photocatalysed step. Both sulfilimines and alkenes are easily accessible, providing access to a wide range of N-heterocycles with different ring types, ring sizes and substituents on the skeleton.

The isotopic label tritium can be selectively added into aromatic organic compounds by a homogenous hydrogenolysis reaction using aryl thianthrenium salts, tritium gas and a molecular palladium catalyst.

One-dimensional wires with metal–metal bonding have been studied for more than a century, but control over structure and properties has remained challenging. Here, palladium–palladium bonding is used to make one-dimensional wires with lengths of up to 750 nm in solution, whose molecular structures can be rationally modified.

Thianthrene, long used in materials science, has recently emerged as a powerful reagent in organic synthesis. Its unique electronic structure enables access to diverse aryl, alkenyl and alkyl thianthrenium salts, which exhibit reactivity beyond conventional (pseudo)halides. This Review highlights the fundamental properties, distinctive reactivity and synthetic applications of these thianthrenium salts.

Epicardial engineered heart muscle allografts from induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes can safely and effectively remuscularize chronically failing hearts in rhesus macaques, leading to improved cardiac function and paving the way for human clinical trials.

Proteins with small structural modifications at specific sites are valuable, yet challenging to access by chemical methods. Now, tyrosine-selective single-atom modifications on proteins have been achieved by C–H functionalization using a rationally designed selenoxide to introduce a versatile selenonium linchpin for further transformations.

¹⁸F-labeled cysteine residues, synthesized via metal-free radiodeoxyfluorination, and ¹⁸F-labeled ruthenium-containing peptide sequences, via ruthenium-assisted radiodeoxyfluorination, can be used as tracers for positron emission tomography imaging.

Introducing C–F bonds into organic molecules is a challenging task, particularly through C–H activation methods. Now, a uranium-based photocatalyst turns traditional selectivity rules on their heads and fluorinates unfunctionalized alkane Csp³–H bonds, even in the presence of C–H bonds that are typically more reactive.

Cysteine bioconjugation is an important method to modify biomolecules, but synthetic efforts to diversify reactive warheads and the low reactivity of introducible linchpins often impede application in biological laboratories. Now, a thianthrenium-based reagent permits site-selective installation of episulfonium on biomacromolecules, enabling one-step addition of bioorthogonal nucleophiles and further applications in quantitative proteomics and cross-linking.

HistoPlexer, a deep learning model, generates multiplexed protein expression maps from H&E images, capturing tumour–immune cell interactions. It outperforms baselines, enhances immune subtyping and survival prediction and offers a cost-effective tool for precision oncology.

In the Tumor Profiler proof-of-concept observational study, a multiomics approach for profiling tumors from patients with melanoma was feasible, returning data within 4 weeks and informing treatment recommendations in 75% of cases.

A highly site-selective aromatic C–H functionalization reaction that does not require a particular directing group or arene substitution pattern provides functionalized arenes that can participate in various transformations.

A direct conversion of carboxylic acids to alpha-olefins without the need for a stoichiometric additive has now been reported. The transformation is enabled by a dual cobalt/iridium proton-reduction–photoredox catalyst system, and can proceed on abundant fatty acids as well as on complex carboxylic acids.

By putting the pieces of a chemical puzzle into the right order, a thorny problem in catalysis has been solved. This opens the door to syntheses of molecules that contain the useful trifluoromethyl group.

Nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S_NAr) is the most commonly used method to generate arenes that contain ¹⁸F for use in PET imaging; here, an unusual concerted S_NAr reaction is presented that is not limited to electron-poor arenes.

There has been considerable recent experimental progress in cavity quantum electrodynamics, involving the quantum-mechanical coupling of cold atoms to a confined light field. Here, the trapped atoms are in the form of a Bose—Einstein condensate, and so all couple identically to a single mode of the light field.

Open-access 3D images of whole cells and tissues with combined finer resolution and larger sample size are enabled by advances in focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy.

Chemistry of palladium in the 0, I, II and IV oxidation states is well established. Here, concerted reductive elimination from bimetallic Pd(III)–Pd(III) complexes is observed for the first time in carbon–heteroatom bond-forming processes relevant to oxidative palladium catalysis.

DeepTaskGen uses deep learning to generate synthetic task-based fMRI maps from resting state data, enabling scalable neuroimaging studies. It preserves individual variation and outperforms benchmarks in biomarker and cognitive prediction.

Empirically based models of disease progression in familial frontotemporal dementia reveal the relative ordering of clinical, neuroimaging, and fluid biomarker changes and facilitate novel clinical trial designs

Ecologically friendly wood electronics will help alleviating the shortcomings of state-of-art cellulose-based green electronics. Here, the authors introduce iron-catalyzed laser-induced graphitization (IC-LIG) as an innovative approach for engraving large-scale electrically conductive structures on wood with high quality and efficiency.

Despite the potential of fluorinated compounds in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, the formation of C–F bonds remains challenging. It has now been shown that aryl sulfonium salts, which can be made by site-selective C–H functionalization, have advantageous photoredox reactivity compared to conventional (pseudo)halides and can be used for late-stage C–H fluorination.

The molecular mechanisms underlying drug resistance in relapsed or refractory (rr) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain to be explored. Here, the use of bulk and single cell multi-omics and ex vivo drug profiling for 21 rrAML patients reveals mechanisms of resistance to the Bcl-2 inhibitor venetoclax and treatment vulnerabilities.

Exceptional positional selectivity in aromatic substitution can now be achieved through a previously unappreciated phenomenon. Radicals with high electron affinity undergo radical aromatic substitution with nearly exclusive para selectivity by eliciting significant arene-to-radical charge transfer in the transition state of addition.

Long-read single-cell RNA sequencing is capable of detecting isoform-level gene expression and genomic alterations such as mutations and gene fusions, thereby providing cell-specific genotype-phenotype information. Here, the authors use long-read scRNA-seq on metastatic ovarian cancer samples and detect cell-type specific isoforms and gene fusions that may otherwise be misclassified in short-read data.

Phosphorylated histone H2AX is an early signalling event of DNA double-strand breaks. Here the authors use super-resolution microscopy and ChIP-seq and identify ‘nano-domains’ – chromatin loops decorated by γH2AX and flanked by CTCF.

As compared to the drug discovery process, the development of new ¹⁸F PET tracers lacks a well-established pipeline that advances compounds from academic research to candidacy for (pre)clinical imaging. In order to bridge the gaps between methodological advances and clinical success, we must rethink the development process from training to implementation.