Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry Blog

Nicholas H. Evans and Paul D. Beer at University of Oxford, describe in this paper the first example of a solution based redox-active interlocked host system capable of the electrochemical recognition of anions and most specifically chloride.

Read this HOT article, as rated by the referees, which will be free to access until 6th December.

A ferrocene functionalized rotaxane host system capable of the electrochemical recognition of chloride
Nicholas H. Evans and Paul D. Beer
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, 9, 92-100
DOI: 10.1039/C0OB00458H

Michael D. Threadgill and coworkers at University of Bath report a very interesting synthesis of 4,5-disubstituted isoquinolin-1-ones and their biological evaluation against PARP-2.

This paper is specially relevant because of the difficulties of working with this class of compound such as insolubility and lack of reactivity. This is a HOT paper that will be free to access until 6th December.

A very neat synthesis relevant for the synthetic and medicinal chemistry communities.

Synthesis of 4-alkyl-, 4-aryl- and 4-arylamino-5-aminoisoquinolin-1-ones and identification of a new PARP-2 selective inhibitor
Peter T. Sunderland, Archana Dhami, Mary F. Mahon, Louise A. Jones, Sophie R. Tully, Matthew D. Lloyd, Andrew S. Thompson, Hashim Javaid, Niall M. B. Martin and Michael D. Threadgill
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0OB00665C,

Thomas Nugent and colleagues at Jacobs University describe the use of a three component catalyst, an amino acid, a base and a hydrogen bond donor, to form quaternary C-C bonds in this paper that is the front cover of the first issue of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry in 2011.

Read this free to access until mid-January paper to find out more about the catalytic enantioselective formation of an important class of Michael products bearing quaternary carbons.

Practical access to highly enantioenriched quaternary carbon Michael adducts using simple organocatalysts
Thomas C. Nugent, Mohammad Shoaib and Amna Shoaib
 Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, 9, 52-56
DOI: 10.1039/C0OB00822B, Communication

Véronique Gouverneur and colleagues at University of Oxford, UK,  have designed an excellent avenue to generate 18F-labelled molecules via traceless Staudinger ligation.

This OBC HOT article is free to access until the end of the year. The referees rated it as very significant and the authors say that this novel prosthetic group 18F-radiochemistry may find numerous applications in the context of peptide 18F-labelling as the new functionality installed upon ligation is the native amide bond.

This article is part of the fluorine chemistry web themed issue that will be published on line in December. Watch out for it and if you want us to let you know when it is published contact us.

The traceless Staudinger ligation for indirect 18F-radiolabelling
Laurence Carroll, Sophie Boldon, Romain Bejot, Jane E. Moore, Jérôme Declerck and Véronique Gouverneur
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0OB00564A , Paper

Piet Herdewijn from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and colleagues have designed a series of leaving groups that are compatible with HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (an enzyme that synthesises DNA from RNA).

The manuscript has been highlighted in Highlights on Chemical Biology and it is also a OBC Hot article which will be free to access until the end of the year.

Tha referees said that it was a VIP paper that made a very important contribution to the field.

Read more here

3-Phosphono-L-alanine as pyrophosphate mimic for DNA synthesis using HIV-1 reverse transcriptase
Shiqiong Yang, Mathy Froeyen, Eveline Lescrinier, Philippe Marlière and Piet Herdewijn
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0OB00554A , Paper

Daniel Häussinger, Marcel Mayor and co-workers at University of Basel in Switzerland look at the physical organic aspects of push-pull biaryls and their dynamic conformational interchange for the preparation of bulk organic materials that will display non-linear optical activities.

Two main physical properties are crucial for a strong nonlinear optic response: a large hyperpolarizability of the chromophore and a noncentrosymmetric centre.

In this HOT paper, the authors describe the rotational barriers for atropisomer interconversion in a series of cyclophane derivatives functionalized with complementary electron donating/withdrawing substituents. The referees said that it was a very significant paper in the fied.

You can now read it for free until the end of the year.

Racemisation dynamics of torsion angle restricted biphenyl push-pull cyclophanes
Jürgen Rotzler, Heiko Gsellinger, Markus Neuburger, David Vonlanthen, Daniel Häussinger and Marcel Mayor
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0OB00650E, Paper