Collections

  • Focus |

    Encoded chemical libraries can be used to screen a vast array of compounds against a protein target to identify potent binders. A collection of articles in this focus looks at different methods to create libraries of encoded peptide macrocycles and the advantages that such libraries offer for discovering protein binders.

  • Collection |

    Efficient redox catalysis offers an important avenue in using renewable energy to process fuels. To this end, efforts in homogeneous, heterogeneous and microbial catalysis may each advance our fundamental understanding and technological capabilities.

    Image: David Schilter/Rachael Tremlett
  • Focus |

    Our understanding of the bonding, reactivity and electronic structure of actinides, though it has both fundamental and practical importance, lags behind that of the rest of the periodic table. A collection of articles in this Focus highlights recent developments in this area, in particular featuring uranium(VI) dianions bearing four U–N multiple bonds, berkelium(IV) stabilized in aqueous solution and a plutonium material showing evidence for the delocalization of 5f electrons.

  • Focus |

    Extracellular chemical signals that mediate a range of intracellular functions must either be directly transported across cell membranes or be bound to a receptor causing a response to be propagated into the cell interior. A variety of systems have evolved that can operate in this way, but designing synthetic systems that replicate such functions is not trivial. A collection of articles in this Focus discuss artificial methods for transporting chemical information across a lipid bilayer.

    Image: LINGBING KONG
  • Focus |

    The question of what chemical and physical processes combined to produce the first living systems is perhaps impossible to answer with any certainty, but research continues to provide clues that may help us understand our primordial past. A collection of articles in this Focus explore the origins of RNA and its role in contemporary biological systems, revealing new insights into what early Earth might have looked like and how life first emerged.

    Image: CHRISTINE HE, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
  • Collection |

    The tissue microenvironment is structurally and dynamically complex. Materials designed to interact with diseased or compromised tissue to induce regeneration, or to act as a scaffold for the production of tissues in the laboratory, thus need to be responsive to the microenvironment. For this, researchers leverage increased knowledge of the importance of the spatiotemporal integration of biomaterials with the tissue environment, as well as latest developments in high-resolution technologies in imaging and in materials synthesis and fabrication. Dynamically responsive materials for use in tissue engineering respond to external stimuli or have inherent properties that trigger the targeted, timed release of integral chemical constituents or of incorporated ligands for the controlled repair or remodelling of surrounding tissue. This collection highlights recent impactful advances, published in Nature-branded journals, in such dynamic biomaterials.

    Image: Tulsi Voralia
  • Focus |

    Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signalling molecule involved in a variety of biological processes, but the way in which it interacts with some metalloproteins is not well understood. A collection of articles in this issue reveals how NO binds to proteins containing type-1 copper sites, based on studies with small-molecule mimics and engineered model proteins.

    Image: Subrata Kundu
  • Focus |

    Improving the practice of chemistry research and education in the developing world would enable global challenges — such as the need for water and food security, better health, and cleaner energy — to be tackled more effectively by those who are more directly affected by these issues. A collection of articles in this Focus highlight some of the problems faced by researchers in less-developed countries and describe a variety of ways in which local resources can be used in establishing self-sustained research communities that can contribute to chemistry on an international scale.

  • Focus |

    Homogenous protein conjugates are required for many biological and therapeutic applications. A collection of articles in this Focus highlights some of the latest advances in developing new site-selective reactions for modifying proteins.

    Image: Ella Marushchenko
  • Focus |

    The miniaturization of electronic devices that use silicon-based technology will soon reach a limit and if devices are to continue getting smaller, scientists must harness the electronic properties of single molecules. A collection of Articles in this Focus highlights recent progress in the understanding and control of charge transport through single molecules.

  • Focus |

    Natural products and their derivatives have long been a significant source of pharmaceuticals. A collection of articles in this Focus highlights efforts to mimic some aspects of the way in which these compounds are made in nature with the aim of improving the processes by which synthetic drug leads are identified.

  • Focus |

    The properties of 2D materials, such as graphene, arise not only from their composition but also their sheet-like structures. Synthetic 2D polymers made from well-defined monomers promise to expand the range of such materials, but are very difficult to synthesize. A collection of articles in this Focus highlights some of the latest research in making and characterizing single-crystal synthetic 2D polymers, and also considers the challenges and potential for these materials in the future.