Chemical biology articles from across Nature Portfolio

Chemical biology is the study of the chemicals and chemical reactions involved in biological processes, incorporating the disciplines of bioorganic chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology and pharmacology. Chemicals – including natural small molecules, such as lipids, carbohydrates and metals, or non-natural probe or drug molecules – are used to gain insight into biological problems at a mechanistic level.

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  • News & Views |

    Identifying new proteoforms — structural variants of proteins — is frequently challenging, particularly on the proteome-wide scale. A new study leverages their differential thermal stabilities to identify proteoform functional groups by deep thermal proteome profiling.

    • Teagan L. Campbell
    •  & Bryon S. Drown
    Nature Chemical Biology, 1-2

  • News |

    A streamlined genome makes bacteria immune to viral infection, and designing mini-MRI scanners for low- and middle-income countries.

    • Shamini Bundell
    •  & Nick Petrić Howe
    Nature

  • Comments & Opinion |

    Increasing evidence suggests that the spatial distribution of biomolecules within cells is a critical component in deciphering single-cell molecular heterogeneity. State-of-the-art single-cell MS imaging is uniquely capable of localizing biomolecules within cells, providing a dimension of information beyond what is currently available through in-depth omics investigations.

    • Hua Zhang
    • , Daniel G. Delafield
    •  & Lingjun Li
    Nature Methods 20, 327-330

  • News & Views |

    Nanomachines are central to life and are becoming an important part of self-regulated nanotechnologies. Inspired by natural self-assembled nanosystems, it has been shown that artificial nanosystems can evolve and adopt regulatory functions upon fragmentation of their structures into multiple components that reassemble to form the same nanostructure.

    Nature Chemistry, 1-2

  • News & Views |

    We identified small molecules that rewire the transcriptional state of cancer cells by covalently targeting the RNA-binding protein NONO. These small molecules stabilize the interactions of NONO with its target mRNAs, thereby overriding the compensatory action of paralog proteins and revealing a pharmacological strategy for disrupting previously undruggable oncogenic pathways.

    Nature Chemical Biology, 1-2
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