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Nature 437, 487-488 (22 September 2005) | doi:10.1038/437487a; Published online 21 September 2005

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Synthetic chemistry: Recipes for excess

John Hartwig1

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The selective production of a particular mirror-image form of a molecule is immensely important to organic synthesis. But techniques to find the right catalysts have traditionally been protracted and fiddly. Help is at hand.

Chiral molecules are molecules that come in two non-superimposable mirror-image forms, known as enantiomers. Synthesizing one enantiomer of a chiral molecule in preference to the other is difficult but crucial: among other things, single-enantiomer drugs account for some 40% of worldwide drug sales, worth more than US$100 billion1.

  1. John Hartwig is in the Department of Chemistry, Yale University, PO Box 208107, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8107, USA.
    Email: john.hartwig@yale.edu

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