Mats Larhed and colleagues from the University of Uppsala provide an extremely accessible introduction to microwave synthesis in this review article, demonstrating the use of single-mode microwave synthesis for laboratory-scale preparation of small molecules. They focus of the synthesis of potential treatments of four of the world’s most infectious diseases; tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and hepatitis C.
Microwave-assisted synthesis of small molecules targeting the infectious diseases tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and hepatitis C
Johan Gising, Luke R. Odell and Mats Larhed
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB06833H
A bacteria present in the mouth – Streptococcus mutans – has been shown to generate the metabolite mutanobactin A by scientists from the US. They found that the metabolite inhibits biofilms formed by the fungal oral pathogen Candida albicans, which causes yeast infections.
On the cover of 
Resnati and colleagues have conducted an NMR study of phosphate oxoanion binding of a 2-iodo-imidazolium receptor with charge assisted halogen bonding, finding a surprisingly strong binding constant for phosphate anions, their work is highlighted on the outside front cover.
On a completely different topic, Anderson and Moreno have been using CO2 to produce ureas at ambient conditions, using 12- and 14- electron titanium imido complexes:
On the outside front cover of this week’s issue is a 
The inside front cover is work from Jonathan Guimond-Tremblay, Université Laval, et al. on the synthesis of three monofluorinated dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine derivatives for use as probes in 19F NMR studies to study the effects of drugs and peptides on model membranes.
