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Double-click enables synthesis of chemical libraries for drug discovery

Operationally simple chemical reactions, termed click reactions, are widely used in many scientific fields. A streamlined synthesis of compounds called azides looks set to expand the role of click chemistry still further.
  1. Joseph J. Topczewski

    1. Joseph J. Topczewski is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.

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  2. En-Chih Liu

    1. En-Chih Liu is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.

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Generating molecules and materials that have desirable functional properties is arguably the central goal of synthetic chemistry. For example, drugs are developed to have a set of physical and pharmacological properties that can treat a specific disease safely. Writing in Nature, Meng et al.1 report a reagent that greatly simplifies the synthesis of compounds known as azides, and thereby opens up a remarkably straightforward route to making libraries of compounds that might have useful biological functions.

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Nature 574, 42-43 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02905-w

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