RSC Chemical Biology Blog

While PROteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) were first discovered over two decades ago, targeted protein degradation remains an exciting and valuable strategy in drug development. From macrocyclic peptides to nanoparticle-based delivery systems, there continues to be a wealth and diversity of PROTACs research published in RSC Chemical Biology each year. This selection of papers highlights research into innovative targeted protein degradation strategies from 2025.

Research Spotlight

Macrocyclic peptides as a new class of targeted protein degraders 

Xuefei Jing, Joel P. Mackay and Toby Passioura

Reductively activated CPP–PROTAC nanocomplexes enhance target degradation via efficient cellular uptake

Maho Miyamoto, Kosuke Saito, Hidetomo Yokoo and Yosuke Demizu

Application of HIV-1 viral protein R-derived-peptides as new E3 ligase-binding components of BRD4 degraders

Kohei Tsuji, Xueyuan Huang, Maho Miyamoto, Sayaka Sukegawa, Hidetomo Yokoo, Hiroaki Takeuchi, Yosuke Demizu and Hirokazu Tamamura

Identification of ligands for E3 ligases with restricted expression using fragment-based methods

Alex G. Waterson, Brian D. Lehmann, Zhenwei Lu, John L. Sensintaffar, Edward T. Olejniczak, Bin Zhao, Tyson Rietz, William G. Payne, Jason Phan and Stephen W. Fesik

Cell-based high-throughput screening using a target–NanoLuc fusion construct to identify molecular glue degraders of c-Myc oncoprotein

Muyu Xu, Jinying Qiu, Lin Tan, Jiayu Xu, Yi Wang, Wenyue Kong, Hongda Liao, Anran Chen, Xiaolan Chen, Jiying Zhang, Cookson K. C. Chiu, Meiying Zhang, Yingying Tian, Caohui Li, Biao Ma, Leiming Wang, Jingpeng Fu, Seung H. Choi, Jeffrey Hill and Weijun Shen

This selection highlights only the most recent RSC Chemical Biology papers on this topic – for much more, read the journal at RSC Chemical Biology - Home.

If you would like to publish your research with RSC Chemical Biology, or have a suggestion for a future Hot Topic, please contact us at ChemBio-rsc@rsc.org.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Bluesky for new articles and the latest news from RSC Chemical Biology and related journals at the Royal Society of Chemistry.

We’re pleased to announce that the latest RSC Chemical Biology Emerging Investigators collection has now been published online!

Read the collection here.

RSC Chemical Biology is proud to present this collection of invited contributions from early career researchers who are making significant contributions to the field of chemical biology. Congratulations to all of the featured researchers!

A selection of the articles has been provided below. Read the full collection at https://rsc.li/cbemi25
All articles in RSC Chemical Biology are open access and free to read.

Profile
Contributors to the 2025 RSC Chemical Biology Emerging Investigators Collection
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2025, DOI: 10.1039/D5CB90052B
 
Communications
Efficient synthesis of O-glycosylated amino acids
Felicity J. Frank, Rebecca A. Lawson and Tom E. McAllister
RSC Chem. Biol., 2025, 6, 851-856, DOI: 10.1039/D5CB00076A
 
P450 cyptide synthase MpoB catalyzes the cross-linking of the YPW motif on the precursor peptide
Abujunaid Habib Khan, Jabal Rahmat Haedar, Vic Kiselov, Viktors Romanuks, Gints Smits, Stefano Donadio and Chin-Soon Phan
RSC Chem. Biol., 2025, 6, 1386-1390, DOI: 10.1039/D5CB00153F
 
Papers
The SpyBLI cell-free pipeline for the rapid quantification of binding kinetics from crude samples
Olga Predeina, Misha Atkinson, Oliver Wissett, Montader Ali, Cristina Visentin, Stefano Ricagno, Anthony H. Keeble, Mark R. Howarth and Pietro Sormanni
RSC Chem. Biol., 2025, 6, 1313-1327, DOI: 10.1039/D5CB00079C
 
Structure-guided engineering of a polyphosphate kinase 2 class III from an Erysipelotrichaceae bacterium to produce base-modified purine nucleotides
Rachel M. Mitton-Fry, René Rasche, Ann-Marie Lawrence-Dörner, Jannik Eschenbach, Aileen Tekath, Andrea Rentmeister, Daniel Kümmel and Nicolas V. Cornelissen
RSC Chem. Biol., 2025, 6, 1328-1335, DOI: 10.1039/D5CB00108K
 
We hope you enjoy this new themed collection from RSC Chemical Biology.

We’re pleased to announce that the latest RSC Chemical Biology Emerging Investigators collection has now been published online!

Read the collection here.

This collection highlights the work of outstanding early career researchers from across the chemical biology community. We’ve provided links to these articles and the summary Profile below. All articles in RSC Chemical Biology are open access and free to read.

If you would like to nominate a colleague or yourself as an Emerging Investigator for our next collection, please contact us for further details. Emerging Investigators must be group leaders or principal investigators in the first 10 years of their independent career.

Profile

Contributors to the 2024 RSC Chemical Biology Emerging Investigators Collection
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2025, DOI: 10.1039/D5CB90017D

Communication

Redox-neutral, metal-free tryptophan labeling of polypeptides in hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP)
Mohammad Nuruzzaman, Brandon M. Colella, Zeinab M. Nizam, Isaac JiHoon Cho, Julia Zagorski and Jun Ohata
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2024, 5, 963–969, DOI: 10.1039/D4CB00142G

Papers

Reverse transcription as key step in RNA in vitro evolution with unnatural base pairs
Eva S. Hoffmann, Mareike C. De Pascali, Lukas Neu, Christof Domnick, Alice Soldà and Stephanie Kath-Schorr
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2024, 5, 556–566 DOI: 10.1039/D4CB00084F

Expanding the repertoire of GalNAc analogues for cell-specific bioorthogonal tagging of glycoproteins
Abdul Zafar, Sandhya Sridhar, Ganka Bineva-Todd, Anna Cioce, Nadia Abdulla, Vincent Chang, Stacy A. Malaker, David S. Hewings and Benjamin Schumann
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2024,  5, 1002–1009, DOI: 10.1039/D4CB00093E

Superoxide-responsive quinone methide precursors (QMP-SOs) to study superoxide biology by proximity labeling and chemoproteomics
Hinyuk Lai and Clive Yik-Sham Chung
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2024,  5, 924–937, DOI: 10.1039/D4CB00111G

A nanoengineered tandem nitroreductase: designing a robust prodrug-activating nanoreactor
Mariia Zmyslia, Michael J. Capper, Michael Grimmeisen, Kerstin Sartory, Benedikt Deuringer, Mohamed Abdelsalam, Kaiwei Shen, Manfred Jung, Wolfgang Sippl, Hans-Georg Koch, Laurine Kaul, Regine Süss, Jesko Köhnke and Claudia Jessen-Trefzer
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2025,  6, 21–35, DOI: 10.1039/D4CB00127C

Development of selective nanomolar cyclic peptide ligands as GBA1 enzyme stabilisers
Rebecca E. Katzy, Renier H. P. van Neer, Maria J. Ferraz, Kim Nicolai, Toby Passioura, Hiroaki Suga, Seino A. K. Jongkees and Marta Artola
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2025, 6, 563–570, DOI: 10.1039/D4CB00218K

Development of a fluorescence-based assay for RecBCD activity using Functional Data Analysis and Design of Experiments
Adam Winnifrith, Steven R. Brown, Piotr Jedryszek , Christopher Grant, Philip E. Kay, Adam M. Thomas, Jacob D. Bradbury and Thomas Lanyon-Hogg
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2025,  DOI: 10.1039/D4CB00291A

RSC Chemical Biology is delighted to welcome papers for a themed collection on ‘Chemical Glycobiology: innovative tools for the sweet side of biology’, Guest Edited by Dr Benjamin Schumann (Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College London), Prof. Hongzhi Cao (Ocean University of China) and Prof. Dr Marthe Walvoort (University of Groningen).

 Glycans have come a long way from their consideration of “decorating” biomolecules to proven, essential modulators of physiology. Chemistry has played an essential part in this process: the non-templated biosynthesis of glycans needed tools for their profiling, perturbation and visualization. The field of glycobiology has thus served as a catalyst to invent new chemistry, recognized through awards by major learned societies as well as the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022.

Submit now

Through the invention of new tools, their use in understanding critical new biology, and their application in quantitative biology, it is certain that today, chemical glycobiology is advancing the boundaries of science. This themed collection seeks to highlight the use of innovative chemistry in advancing glycobiology in its full breadth. We are excited about contributions that feature all aspects of a field that truly tackles the sweet side of biology!

The deadline for submissions is 1 May 2025.

Authors are welcome to submit original research in the form of a Communication or Full Paper. The manuscript should be prepared according to our article guidelines and submitted via our online system. Ideally, computational work should be experimentally validated wherever possible. For articles to be accepted into the collection, the applications and relevance to chemical biology must be clear. For more information on the journal, please see the journal homepage.

All manuscripts will be subject to the usual initial assessment and peer review processes as necessary, and inclusion in the Collection will be at the discretion of the Guest Editors. Please indicate in your submission that you are submitting to this Collection and inform the Editorial Office by email.

Following our peer-review process, we will publish accepted articles online in a citeable form as soon as they are ready, with compilation and promotion of the complete collection in late 2025.

RSC Chemical Biology and RSC Pharmaceutics are delighted to welcome papers for a joint themed collection on ‘Endocytosis and Cellular Delivery’, Guest Edited by Prof. Alexander Kros (Leiden University, ORCID 0000-0002-3983-3048), Prof. Vince Rotello (University of Massachusetts, ORCID 0000-0002-5184-5439) and Prof. Georgina Such (University of Melbourne, ORCID 0000-0002-2868-5799).

This collection will explore how both biological and synthetic tools can be leveraged to understand the impact of material structure on the migration of specific cellular barriers, aiming to enhance the delivery efficiency of macromolecules and delivery systems such as liposomes, lipid nanoparticles, and polymeric carriers. Key topics will include the following:

1. Novel tools to understand and quantify cellular trafficking of nanoparticles and their cargo, including processes such as endosomal escape, membrane fusion, cytosolic delivery and nuclear localisation.
2. Fundamental understanding of how nanoparticle structure impacts cellular interactions.
3. Design of new delivery systems that incorporate intelligent strategies to migrate biological barriers for more effective therapeutic delivery.
4. Novel tools, methodologies to understand and quantify cell uptake and the fate of the multiple components in drug delivery systems.
5. Tools/basic understanding on the role of the protein corona on the fate of the particles beyond the very general basic level.

The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2025

Articles can be submitted via the respective journal’s website, rsc.li/rsc-chembio or rsc.li/RSCPharma. Information on the journals’ scopes can be found at the bottom of this message. We would be grateful if, upon submission you would mention that your manuscript is intended for this themed collection.  Please note that all submissions are subject to the journal’s normal peer review processes, an initial assessment to confirm the manuscript’s suitability for full peer review.

Promotion of the collection is scheduled for  mid-2025, with articles published online as soon as they’re accepted.

About RSC Chemical Biology

Led by Hiroaki Suga (University of Tokyo), RSC Chemical Biology is dedicated to publishing and disseminating the most exceptionally significant, breakthrough findings of interest to the chemical biology community. All submissions are handled by our experienced and internationally recognised Associate Editors. For more information on the journal, please visit the journal homepage.

About RSC Pharmaceutics

RSC Pharmaceutics acknowledges how chemistry and related disciplines can make a big difference to addressing health challenges. The journal provides a platform to publish crucial research on pharmaceutics, covering emerging technologies and techniques in pharmaceutics, including drug delivery, precision medicine, and enhanced drug targeting. Publications in RSC Pharmaceutics have the potential to drive real change in worldwide health. For more information on the journal, please visit the journal homepage.

As gold open access journals, there are no barriers to accessing content and your research article will reach an international audience.

Article processing charges apply at RSC Chemical Biology – please see the journal web site for details on fees, discounts, and waivers. RSC Pharmaceutics is currently waiving article processing charges for all submissions.

RSC Chemical Biology is delighted to welcome papers for its latest themed collection on ‘Biomolecular Technologies’, Sheel Dodani (The University of Texas at Dallas; ORCID 0000-0003-0271-6080) and Ariel Furst (Massachusetts Institute of Technology; ORCID 0000-0001-9583-9703).

Contributions are welcome that engineer the biomolecules of life to create recombinant or whole cell technologies. New engineering strategies and resulting technologies, including but not limited to biologics, catalysts, and sensors, are welcome for this themed collection on emerging topics in biomolecular technologies.

Ideally, computational work should be experimentally validated wherever possible. For articles to be accepted into the collection, the applications and relevance to chemical biology must be clear.

The deadline for submissions is 14 October 2024. Submit your work to the collection now!

Promotion of the collection is scheduled for early 2025, with articles published online as soon as they’re accepted.

Authors are welcome to submit original research in the form of a Communication or Full Paper. Articles can be submitted via our website: rsc.li/rsc-chembio. When submitting your manuscript, please mention that it is intended for this themed collection in the “notes to the editor” box. The Editorial Office reserves the right to check suitability of submissions for both the journal and the scope of the collection, and inclusion of accepted articles in the final themed collection is not guaranteed.

Explore other open calls for papers from RSC journals!

About RSC Chemical Biology:

Led by Hiroaki Suga (University of Tokyo), RSC Chemical Biology is dedicated to publishing and disseminating the most exceptionally significant, breakthrough findings of interest to the chemical biology community. All submissions are handled by our experienced and internationally recognised Associate Editors. For more information on the journal, please visit the journal homepage.

As a gold open access journal, there are no barriers to accessing content and your research article will reach an international audience. Article processing charges apply – please see the journal web site for details on fees, discounts, and waivers.

RSC Chemical Biology is now indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), PubMed Central, Scopus and Web of Science: Emerging Sources Citation Index. Find out more about the journal and submit your work at rsc.li/rsc-chembio.

We’re pleased to announce that a new themed collection from RSC Chemical Biology has now been published online!

Read the collection

This themed collection, guest edited by Angela Casini (Technical University of Munich, Germany), Hui Chao (Sun Yat-Sen University, China), Hongzhe Sun (University of Hong Kong, China), and Christopher J. Chang (University of California, Berkeley, United States), offers articles showcasing the ongoing interest in the chemical biology of metals.

This themed collection offers articles showcasing the ongoing interest in the chemical biology of metals. Recent years have witnessed significant advances in the development of new imaging probes that can probe the physiological and pathological roles of metals in biology and/or leverage unique properties of metal coordination chemistry and metal-based medicines. In addition, significant progress has been made in understanding metallo-medicines and studying metal-based catalysis and signaling in living systems. We therefore have collected contributions that are representative of the tremendous promise and pace of growth in this area.

A small selection of the articles is shared below – please visit the above link for the full collection. All articles in RSC Chemical Biology are open access and free to read.

Editorial

Introduction to ‘Chemical biology of metals’
Angela Casini, Hui Chao, Hongzhe Sun and Christopher J. Chang
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2024, 5, DOI: 10.1039/D4CB90017K

Opinions and Reviews

Copper binding and protein aggregation: a journey from the brain to the human lens
Yanahi Posadas, Carolina Sánchez-López and Liliana Quintanar
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 974–985 DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00145H

Unlocking the potential of platinum drugs: organelle-targeted small-molecule platinum complexes for improved anticancer performance
Zhiqin Deng, Shu Chen, Gongyuan Liu and Guangyu Zhu
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 1003–1013, DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00087G

Communications and Papers

Discovery of cisplatin-binding proteins by competitive cysteinome profiling
Xianghe Wang, Yihai Zhang and Chu Wang
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 670–674 DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00042G

The effect of metalation on antimicrobial piscidins imbedded in normal and oxidized lipid bilayers
Ana Dreab and Craig A. Bayse
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 573–586 DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00035D

We hope you enjoy this new themed collection from RSC Chemical Biology.

We’re pleased to announce that a new themed collection from RSC Chemical Biology and RSC Medicinal Chemistry has now been published online.

Read the collection

This themed collection, Guest Edited by Professor Thimmaiah Govindaraju (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India), covers advancements in molecular and nanotheranostics with particular emphasis on the design of theranostic tools and their selective interaction with biomolecular targets to image and ameliorate pathological conditions. The collection is anticipated to catalyze the development of precision theranostics as advanced and personalizable tools in chemical biology and modern medicine.

The articles in the collection are listed below. Articles in RSC Chemical Biology are open access and free to read.

Editorial

Introduction to the themed collection on ‘Molecular and nanotheranostics’
Thimmaiah Govindaraju
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2024, 5, DOI: 10.1039/D3CB90050A

Reviews

Small molecules and conjugates as theranostic agents
Sumon Pratihar, Krithi K. Bhagavath and Thimmaiah Govindaraju
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 826–849, DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00073G

Recent progress of small-molecule-based theranostic agents in Alzheimer’s disease
Furong Gao, Jiefang Chen, Yuancun Zhou, Letong Cheng, Ming Hu and Xiaohui Wang
RSC. Med. Chem., 2023, 14, 2231–2245, DOI: 10.1039/D3MD00330B

Papers and Communications

Single-chain multicolor-reporter templates for subcellular localization of molecular events in mammalian cells
Sung-Bae Kim, Ramasamy Paulmurugan, Nobuo Kitada and Sojiro A. Maki
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 1043–1049, DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00077J

Fluorescent naphthalimide boronates as theranostics: structural investigations, confocal fluorescence and multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy in living cells
Megan J. Green, Haobo Ge, Stephen E. Flower, Charareh Pourzand, Stanley W. Botchway, Hui-Chen Wang, Navaratnarajah Kuganathan, Gabriele Kociok-Köhn, Meng Li, Suying Xu, Tony D. James and Sofia I. Pascu
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2023, 4, 1082–1095, DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00112A

Cationic Dextrin Nanoparticles for Effective Intracellular Delivery of Cytochrome C in Cancer Therapy
Ankita Sarkar, Sanchita Sarkhel, Deepali Bisht and Amit Jaiswal
RSC. Chem. Biol., 2024, 5, DOI: 10.1039/D3CB00090G

We hope you enjoy this new themed collection from RSC Chemical Biology and RSC Medicinal Chemistry.