The merger of photoredox catalysis with transition metal catalysis, termed metallaphotoredox catalysis, has become a mainstay in synthetic methodology over the past decade. Metallaphotoredox cataly...

Sulfinates are important lynchpin intermediates in pharmaceutical production; however, their synthesis via photoredox catalysis is challenging because of their facile oxidation. We herein disclose a...

Alcohols are among the most abundant chemical feedstocks, yet they remain vastly underutilized as coupling partners in transition metal catalysis. Herein, we describe a copper metallaphotoredox...

Bioconjugation technologies have revolutionized the practice of biology and medicine by allowing access to novel biomolecular scaffolds. New methods for residue-selective bioconjugation are highly...

The cross-coupling of aryl bromides with alkenes can provide access to diverse combinatorial chemical space. Two-component couplings between these partners are well-known, but three-component...

Deoxy-functionalization of alcohols represents a class of reactions that has had a profound impact on modern medicine. In particular, deoxyfluorination is commonly employed as a means to incorporate...

Cross-coupling platforms are traditionally built around a sequence of closed-shell steps, such as oxidative addition, transmetalation, and reductive elimination. Herein, we describe a dual photo/ni...

Modern proximity labeling techniques have enabled significant advances in understanding biomolecular interactions. However, current tools primarily utilize activation modes that are incompatible with...

Nature - We use bimolecular homolytic substitution catalysis to sort an electrophilic radical and a nucleophilic radical across an unactivated alkene, accelerating access to pharmaceutically...

Nature - Metal carbenes are accessed using a metallaphotoredox platform that exploits iron carbene reactivity using readily available chemical feedstocks and α-elimination.

Methyl groups are well understood to play a critical role in pharmaceutical molecules, especially those bearing saturated heterocyclic cores. Accordingly, methods that install methyl groups onto...

Alcohols are commercially abundant and structurally diverse reservoirs of sp3-hybridized chemical space. However, the direct utilization of alcohols in C–C bond-forming cross-couplings remains...

Chemistry professor Prof David MacMillan has set up a foundation in his parents' honour.

Quaternary carbons are ubiquitous in bioactive molecules; however, synthetic methods for the construction of this motif remain underdeveloped. Here, we report the synthesis of quaternary carbons from...

Light-activated reaction offers a general strategy for modifying alcohols

The replacement of a functional group with its corresponding bioisostere is a widely employed tactic during drug discovery campaigns that allows medicinal chemists to improve the ADME properties of...

The coupling of carboxylic acids and amines to form amide linkages is the most commonly performed reaction in the pharmaceutical industry. Herein, we report a new strategy that merges these traditi...

C(sp3)-rich aliphatic motifs in drug molecules are strongly associated with clinical success. Historically, the availability of compound libraries based on C(sp3)-rich cores has been limited due to...

Nature Chemical Biology - Pan et al. establish a general photoproximity labeling approach in living cells, applying microenvironment mapping with a HaloTag-based platform (HaloMap) to profile the...

Here we report the direct conversion of strong, aliphatic C(sp3)–H bonds into the corresponding alkyl sulfinic acids via decatungstate photocatalysis. This transformation has been applied to a...

We report a copper-catalyzed strategy for arylboronic ester synthesis that exploits photoinduced ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) to convert (hetero)aryl acids into aryl radicals amenable to...

Two Princeton University professors have become knight and dame in honors from Queen Elizabeth II announced by the British Government this week: David MacMillan of the Department of Chemistry and...

The copper-catalyzed arylation of unsaturated nitrogen heterocycles, known as the Ullmann–Goldberg coupling, is a valuable transformation for medic...

We disclose a novel radical strategy for the fluorination of alkyl bromides via the merger of silyl radical-mediated halogen-atom abstraction and benzophenone photosensitization. Selectivity for...

The characterization of ligand binding modes is a crucial step in the drug discovery process and is especially important in campaigns arising from phenotypic screening, where the protein target and...

Ruppert–Prakash type reagents (TMSCF3, TMSC2F5, and TMSC3F7) are readily available, air-stable, and easy-to-handle fluoroalkyl sources. Herein, we describe a mild, copper-catalyzed cross-coupling of...

We describe herein a two-step process for the conversion of serine to a wide array of optically pure unnatural amino acids. This method utilizes a photocatalytic cross-electrophile coupling between a...

The identification of cellular targets that can be exploited for therapeutic benefit, broadly known as target ID, remains a fundamental goal in drug discovery. In recent years, the application of new...

ConspectusThe development of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling methods for the activation of C(sp2)–Br bonds facilitated access to arene-rich molecules, enabling a concomitant increase in the...

Here we report the use of pulse radiolysis and spectroelectrochemistry to generate low-valent nickel intermediates relevant to synthetically important Ni-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions and...

Sialylation, the addition of sialic acid to glycans, is a crucial post-translational modification of proteins, contributing to neurodevelopment, oncogenesis, and immune response. In cancer, sialyla...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the infectious agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, remains a global medical problem. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) was identified as...

We report mechanistic insights into an iridium/nickel photocatalytic C–O cross-coupling reaction from time-resolved spectroscopic studies. Using transient absorption spectroscopy, energy transfer...

Aryl halides are a fundamental motif in synthetic chemistry, playing a critical role in metal-mediated cross-coupling reactions and serving as important scaffolds in drug discovery. Although thermal...

ConspectusFor more than a decade, photoredox catalysis has been demonstrating that when photoactive catalysts are irradiated with visible light, reactions occur under milder, cheaper, and environme...

The combined use of reaction kinetic analysis, ultrafast spectroscopy, and stoichiometric organometallic studies has enabled the elucidation of the mechanistic underpinnings to a photocatalytic C–N...

Nature - The synthesis of 1,3- and 1,2-disubstituted cubanes is achieved using a cyclobutadiene precursor and a photolytic carboxylation reaction, respectively, and copper-catalysed amination,...