Research articles

Liquid domains can coexist within lipid membranes, and directly manipulating them in situ may offer a useful tool. Here optical tweezers are used to directly move liquid-ordered domains within the lipid bilayers of individual giant vesicles.

The coupling between excited state intramolecular proton transfer and excimer formation is a phenomenon of fundamental importance but rarely observed. Here the authors observe this interaction in thiazole based organic crystals using a combination of steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques.

Rotenoid natural products have attracted interest as synthetic targets. Here N-heterocyclic carbene-catalysed dynamic kinetic resolution is used to rapidly and enantioselectively assemble the rotenoid core, enabling the modular asymmetric total synthesis of several rotenoid natural products

Polyoxometalate based solids are promising candidates for proton-conducting electrolytes but their low durability and low proton conductivities remains an on-going challenge. Here the authors describe the preparation of polyoxometalate-based solids with much improved stability and proton conductivities.

Beta-lactams are important antiobiotics but synthesising functionalised derivatives in high enantiomeric purity can be challenging. Here malonyl-CoA derivatives are applied in an enantioselective multi-enzyme cascade, yielding beta-lactams bearing three contiguous chiral centres in high diastereomeric purity.

Wacker oxidation is widely used to convert alkenes to carbonyls, but selective oxidation of unbiased internal alkenes can be difficult. Here a nickel-catalyzed alkene isomerisation-oxidation strategy is used to regioconvergently convert mixtures of unactivated internal alkenes to benzylic ketones.

Nitride based photoelectrodes are promising candidates for photoelectrochemical water splitting and hydrogen generation but suffer from quick degradation. Here the authors show indium gallium nitride activated by InN quantum dots on silicon which can be used as stable photoanode for efficient water splitting.

Glucagon is a key therapeutic for hypoglycemia but its application is limited by low aqueous solubility. Here, the absolute configuration each residue of glucagon is systematically inverted, yielding several biologically active analogues with therapeutically relevant solubility arising from epimerisation at a single position.

The n→π* interaction between carbonyls in peptide bonds has been proposed to contribute to protein conformational stability. Here the authors report gas-phase rotational spectroscopy of the glycine-proline dipeptide, revealing that the n→π* interaction stabilizes the trans conformation of the dipeptide with energetics comparable to those of hydrogen bonds.

Liquid layering at heterogeneous surfaces is a general phenomenon but is poorly understood. Here the authors probe pre-nucleation liquid layering at the sapphire–Al solid/liquid interface using a combination of in situ X-ray crystal truncation rod analysis and ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations.