OBC is delighted to introduce our Editor’s Choice collection!
This collection showcases some of the best articles published in the journal, handpicked by our Associate Editors and Editorial Board members. This month we have a selection of recent OBC articles chosen by our Associate Editor Huan Wang.
Meet the Editor
Professor Wang graduated from Peking University (2005). He obtained his PhD from University of Maryland at College Park (2010) and conducted post-doctoral research work at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2010-2014). Huan started at Nanjing University in 2014 and works as a Professor in the Chemistry department.
His research group aims to address problems at the interface of chemistry and biochemistry, including the chemical synthesis and biosynthesis of bioactive peptides, peptide/protein functionalisation and biological functions of non-coding RNAs.
Huan’s favourite articles
Histidine-bridged cyclic peptide natural products: isolation, biosynthesis and synthetic studies
Pascal M. Engelhardt, Robert Keyzers & Margaret A. Brimble
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2024, 22, 8374-8396
“This timely review synthesises four decades of research on histidine-bridged macrocyclic peptides, highlighting their unusual cross-linking chemistry, diverse biosynthetic origins, and emerging biological activities. By integrating structural, biosynthetic and synthetic perspectives, the article provides a comprehensive resource that will guide future discovery and mechanistic studies of this underexplored class of peptide natural products.”
Ag(i)-promoted fragment coupling of peptide thioamides
Varsha J. Thombare, Carlie L. Charron & Craig A. Hutton
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2025, 23, 1995-1999
“This work introduces a conceptually distinct fragment-coupling strategy that leverages Ag(I)-mediated isoimide formation to generate native amide bonds without traditional peptide coupling reagents. The method enables efficient solution- and solid-phase ligations, offering a valuable complement to established NCL-based approaches and showing promise for challenging peptide sequences prone to aspartimide formation.”
Frog farnesyl pyrophosphate synthases and their role as non-canonical terpene synthases for bisabolane sesquiterpenes
Kexin Yang, Houchao Xu, Miguel Vences, Andolalao Rakotoarison, Stefan Schulz & Jeroen S. Dickschat
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2025, 23, 7940-7945
“This manuscript reveals that frog FPPS homologs catalyse unexpected cyclisations of (2Z,6E)-FPP to bisabolane-type terpenoids, uncovering a potential alternative function conserved across diverse FPPS enzymes. The finding expands our understanding of terpene biosynthesis in higher animals and raises fundamental questions about enzyme evolution, substrate promiscuity, and physiological relevance of volatile signalling molecules.”
We hope you enjoyed reading these articles. Keep an eye out for more of our Editors’ favourite articles in the future.
