Artistic impression of the capture of sulfate ions in a molecular cage

Read our March issue

This month, a thesis on the importance of networking for pre-tenure faculty, and an In Your Element on the use of samarium diiodide as a highly atom-economical reducing agent.

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    The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. In recognition of this award, Nature Portfolio presents a collection of research, review and opinion articles that highlight the development of quantum dots over the past three decades.

  • A lab with robotic arms carrying out experiments

    The combination of techniques such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and automation can be used to accelerate chemical and materials synthesis. This Focus issue showcases developments in the automation and digitalization of synthesis, as well as highlights the challenges to be overcome in this area.

  • A petrochemical refinery located at the edge of a body of water illuminates the surroundings with its many bright lights at night

    Nature Chemical Engineering is open for submissions. The journal will cover a broad range of systems and scales that significantly advance fundamental research, aid product and process development and explore new technological solutions, all in the context of core chemical engineering approaches. It will publish research, reviews and opinion articles.

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  • Negatively charged lysine acylations—malonylation, succinylation and glutarylation—impact protein structure and function, which can affect cellular processes. Now temporarily masked thioester derivatives of succinylation and glutarylation can be used for site-specific modification of diverse bacterial and mammalian proteins, which can facilitate the study of how these lysine modifications impact enzymatic activity and control protein–protein and protein–DNA interactions.

    • Maria Weyh
    • Marie-Lena Jokisch
    • Kathrin Lang
    ArticleOpen Access
  • Accessing longer-wavelength emitting organic fluorophores is critical for diagnostic imaging. Here a series of silicon-RosIndolizine fluorophores with emission maxima at 1,300 nm, 1,550 nm and 1,700 nm were synthesized. The fluorophores generate high-resolution in vivo fluorescence images in mice and establish design principles for future shortwave-infrared fluorophore designs.

    • William E. Meador
    • Eric Y. Lin
    • Jared H. Delcamp
    Article
  • Although the light-driven generation of hydrogen from water is a promising approach to renewable fuels, the H–H bond formation step represents a persistent mechanistic question. Now light-harvesting molecular catalysts have been shown to self-assemble into nanoscale aggregates that feature improved efficiency for photoelectrochemical H2 evolution.

    • Isaac N. Cloward
    • Tianfei Liu
    • Alexander J. M. Miller
    Article
  • Time-resolved femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX) is a powerful technique to monitor structural transitions in protein crystals at the atomic level, but its use in non-protein synthetic materials remains limited. Now TR-SFX has been used to visualize the structural dynamics of metal–organic frameworks, showing the potential of this tool to study the dynamic motion of crystalline porous materials.

    • Jaedong Kang
    • Yunbeom Lee
    • Hyotcherl Ihee
    ArticleOpen Access
  • Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) can have vast structural diversity and biological functions enabled by disparate post-translational modifications (PTMs). However, unconventional PTMs derived from non-RiPP biosynthesis are rarely reported. Now a class of lipopeptides featuring a distinct fatty-acyl-modified N terminus and the responsible RiPP/fatty-acid hybrid biosynthetic machinery have been characterized.

    • Hengqian Ren
    • Chunshuai Huang
    • Huimin Zhao
    Article
  • Enantioenriched α-disubstituted α-ethynylamines are valuable synthons to chiral α-tertiary amines and azacycles, but their facile access remains challenging. Now, sterically confined pyridinebisoxazoline ligands have been developed to facilitate highly enantioselective Cu(I)-catalysed propargylic amination of both aliphatic and aryl ketone-derived propargylic carbonates to give α-tertiary ethynylamines. Related tandem sequences are reported to synthesize quaternary azacycles.

    • Zheng Zhang
    • Ying Sun
    • Jian Zhou
    Article
    • Biological and synthetic catalysts often utilize iron in high oxidation states (+IV and greater) to perform challenging molecular transformations. A coordination complex featuring an Fe(VII) ion has now been synthesized through sequential oxidations of nonheme iron–nitrido precursors.

      • Adam T. Fiedler
      • Laxmi Devkota
      News & Views
    • Lack of standardization, transparency and interaction creates information gaps in scientific publications. Through strategies such as voluntary information management, standardization of reaction set-ups, and smart screening approaches, this Perspective gives guidelines on how to improve data management in publications reporting chemical reactions, focusing on reproducibility, standardization and evaluation of synthetic transformations.

      • Malte L. Schrader
      • Felix R. Schäfer
      • Frank Glorius
      Perspective
    • Chiral amines possessing a stereogenic carbon atom bearing three carbon substituents and one nitrogen substituent are challenging structural motifs to prepare enantioselectively. Now, such motifs have been accessed in high enantiopurities by asymmetric Cu-catalysed propargylic amination using sterically confined ligands.

      • Joshua D. Sieber
      News & Views
    • Expansion of the genetic code can enable precise manipulation of proteins through selective functionalization of specific residues. Now, control of tryptophan interactions in proteins can be established by encoding of a vinyl-caged tryptophan analogue that can be selectively decaged to rescue protein activity.

      • Aidan K. Haney
      • T. Ashton Cropp
      News & Views
    • We developed a high-throughput, unbiased strategy for the identification of endogenous biomolecular condensates by merging cell volume compression, sucrose density gradient centrifugation and quantitative mass spectrometry. We demonstrated the performance of this strategy by identifying both global condensate proteins and those responding to specific biological processes on a proteome-wide scale.

      Research Briefing
  • Becoming an assistant professor brings with it several challenges, one of which is developing new relationships that can be professionally and personally beneficial. Shira Joudan reflects on getting to know people at a new institution, having different types of relationships, and how they help with happiness and success.

    • Shira Joudan
    Thesis
  • Ciro Romano, Jack I. Mansell, and David J. Procter have explored the versatility and selectivity of samarium diiodide, and its use as a radical relay catalyst.

    • Ciro Romano
    • Jack I. Mansell
    • David J. Procter
    In Your Element
  • Thomas Kruse and Søren Østergaard reflect on the development of the GLP-1 analogue, semaglutide, which is reshaping peptide therapeutics in type 2 diabetes, weight management, and beyond.

    • Thomas Kruse
    • Søren Østergaard
    In Your Element
  • As the search for new faculty begins across many chemistry departments, Bruce Gibb takes the opportunity to assess his potential biases — and discusses how to address them.

    • Bruce C. Gibb
    Thesis
  • Dewran Kocak and Bryan Roth discuss a psychedelic — 5-MeO-DMT — and what we might learn from its properties.

    • D. Dewran Kocak
    • Bryan L. Roth
    In Your Element

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