Chemical biology articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • News & Views |

    An enzyme that is unusually tolerant of a truly broad range of substrates can catalyse aldol-type chemistry on sugars in which the various hydroxyl groups are protected. The new methodology combines some of the most important advantages of enzyme and small-molecule catalysis.

    • Benjamin G. Davis

  • Article |

    A method for observing the photodynamics of single molecules, without having to immobilize them to a surface or confine them within vesicles, has been used to study the important photosynthetic antenna protein, allophycocyanin. Light-induced conformational changes and a complex relationship between fluorescence intensity and lifetime have been observed.

    • Randall H. Goldsmith
    •  & W. E. Moerner

  • Article |

    Ready access to sugars in which the various hydroxyl groups are differentially protected will be of benefit in the production of vaccines, antibiotics and drugs. Here, a chemoenzymatic method that provides a direct route to such protected sugars is described.

    • Dennis G. Gillingham
    • , Pierre Stallforth
    •  & Donald Hilvert

  • News & Views |

    Small-molecule enzyme-inhibitors often display insufficient affinity and selectivity for their targets causing unwanted side effects when used as drugs. Molecularly imprinted polymers prepared using the enzyme as a template could offer a solution.

    • Börje Sellergren

  • News & Views |

    Among the wide variety of synthetic processes that chemists have developed, only a few can be carried out under physiological conditions. A condensation reaction that is controlled by the constituents of cells has led to the formation of nanostructures within living cells.

    • Bing Xu

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