Chemical Science Blog

Molecular suit provides basic protection

19 Apr 2017

Scientists have designed a macrocycle that can completely surround a small molecule like a suit and protect it from a strong base. This reversible suiting strategy could find applications as protecting groups in organic synthesis and the design of molecular machines.

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
The suit-1-ane: a macrocycle (orange) completely encloses a benzimidazolium cation (blue)

Protecting groups alter the reactivity of organic molecules by shielding functional groups from other reactants. Mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) are linked structures that require a covalent bond to be broken to separate them, which could make them useful protecting groups.

Read the full story by Harriet Brewerton on Chemistry World.

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Chemical Science lighting talk prize winner at UCCS 2017

04 Apr 2017

By Laurent Mathey, Development Editor.

March 27-29, 2017 at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center

The 2017 University of California Symposium for the Chemical Sciences (UCSCS) was held on March 27-29, 2017 at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center and was attended by over 100 University of California graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

The UCCS is a symposium for current graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in all fields of chemistry from all campuses of the University of California. The whole conference is organised by graduate students and postdocs from the UC campuses. The first UCCS meeting was held in March 2016, at the Lake Arrowhead conference center in Lake Arrowhead.

Chemical Science is proud to announce that the Chemical Science lighting tak prize was awarded to Dr Noelle Catarineu from University of California Berkeley. The prize was awarded by Dr Jennifer Griffiths.

Dr Catarineu’s talk was on Reticular Chemistry of Asymmetric Organic Linkers and One-Dimensional Secondary Building Units in Metal-Organic Frameworks.
Congratulations Noelle!

Dr Jennifer Griffiths (left) awarding the Chemical Science prize to Dr Noelle Catarineu (right)

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Tamed radicals expand chemical space

31 Mar 2017

By Rebecca Withers.

A method to functionalise complex molecules with catalytic radicals could expand chemical libraries of the drug and agrochemical industry

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry Even complex molecules like the anti-cancer drug camptothecin (top left) can be modified using Molander’s radical alkylation

US scientists have developed a visible-light mediated reaction that uses tamed alkyl radicals to functionalise complex molecules. This mild and selective method could allow chemists to explore new corners of chemical space and to discover new drugs and agrochemicals.

Read the full story by Jessica Dwyer on Chemistry World.

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Neural network provides accurate simulations without the cost

21 Mar 2017

By Rebecca Withers.

An efficient new computer brain can provide quick answers to computational chemistry problems

A computer that has been taught about organic chemistry can describe the forces in molecules as accurately as density functional theory (DFT), but hundreds of thousands of times faster. This combination of speed and accuracy could allow researchers to tackle problems that were previously impossible.

Chemists hoping to use computer simulations face a dilemma. Researchers commonly need to know the energy of a molecule, and the forces that control how it twists and bends. Accurate methods like DFT, which use quantum mechanics, take the most computer power and time. Approximations such as semi-empirical methods give faster but less reliable results. Although there is a spectrum of options, most techniques ask researchers to trade off speed and accuracy.

Read the full story by Alexander Whiteside on Chemistry World.

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
The neural network can predict molecular energies hundreds of thousands of times faster than DFT

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Awardees of the IUPAC 2017 distinguished women in chemistry or chemical engineering

14 Mar 2017

By Laurent Mathey, Development Editor.

To celebrate International Women′s Day on the 8^th March 2017, IUPAC was pleased to announce the awardees of the IUPAC 2017 Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering:

Prof. Misako Aida, Hiroshima University, Japan
Prof. Lifeng Chi, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
Prof. M. Concepción Gimeno, Institute of Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis (ISQCH), CSIC-University of Zaragoza, Spain
Dr Jaqueline Kiplinger, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States
Prof. Zafra Lerman, Malta Conferences Foundation, Evanston, IL, United States
Prof. Thisbe K. Lindhorst, Universität Kiel, Germany
Prof. Ekaterina Lokteva, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Prof. Yvonne Mascarenhas, University OF Sap Paulo, Sao Carlos, Brazil
Dr Veronika Ruth Meyer, Empa St. Gallen (retired), Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Switzerland
Prof. Ingrid Montes-González, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Prof. Frances Separovic, University of Melbourne, Australia
Prof. Jihong Yu, Jilin University, China

This award aims to acknowledge and promote the work of women chemists and chemical engineers throughout the world. All awardees have been selected based on excellence in basic or applied research, distinguished accomplishments in teaching or education, or demonstrated leadership or managerial excellence in the chemical sciences.

The award ceremony will take place during the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress in São Paulo, Brazil in July, coinciding with a special symposium on Women in Chemistry.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Jihong Yu, an Associate Editor for Chemical Science, has been awarded this prize. Congratulations!

Professor Jihong Yu

Professor Yu is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Secretary-General of the International Zeolite Association (IZA) and in 2015 was officially elected as Academician by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Professor Yu’s group’s research focuses on three main areas, including synthesis of new types of inorganic microporous materials, investigating new routes to the synthesis of inorganic microporous materials, and working toward the rational design and synthesis of inorganic microporous materials.

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Putting the ‘ant’ in antibiotics

08 Mar 2017

By Laurent Mathey, Development Editor.

Antibacterial polyketides uncovered in the most unusual of places

Bacteria living on African ants make polyketides that are active against some drug resistant bacteria, new research shows.

An impending crisis due to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria means there is high demand for new drugs to treat infections. Natural products shape the backbone of the antibiotics we use today, over half of which derive from compounds made byStreptomyces and other soil microbes. But researchers are now looking in more unusual locations for the next generation of antibiotics.

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
Formicamycins are more potent than the previously reported and structurally related fasamycins

Matt Hutchings from the University of East Anglia and colleagues have discovered a new family of antibacterial polyketides, called formicamycins, in bacteria living onTetraponera penzigi, a species of fungus-growing plant-ant. Not only have the team found a new family of molecules but the bacteria that made them, Streptomyces formicae, is new to the scientific community too. ‘Plant roots have lots of Streptomycesbacteria in them, and lots of insects like ants, particularly fungus-growing ants, also pick up these bacteria,’ Hutchings explains.

Read the full story by Adrian Robinson in Chemistry World.

This article is Open Access.

Z Qin et al., Chem. Sci., 2017, DOI: 10.1039/c6sc04265a

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Outstanding Reviewers for Chemical Science in 2016

24 Feb 2017

By Rebecca Withers.

Following the success of Peer Review Week in September 2016 (dedicated to reviewer recognition) during which we published a list of our top reviewers, we are delighted to announce that we will continue to recognise the contribution that our reviewers make to the journal by announcing our Outstanding Reviewers each year.

We would like to highlight the Outstanding Reviewers for Chemical Science in 2016, as selected by the editorial team, for their significant contribution to the journal. The reviewers have been chosen based on the number, timeliness and quality of the reports completed over the last 12 months.

We would like to say a big thank you to those individuals listed here as well as to all of the reviewers that have supported the journal. Each Outstanding Reviewer will receive a certificate to give recognition for their significant contribution.

Professor Atsushi Fukuoka, Hokkaido University

Dr Gilles Gasser, Chimie ParisTech, PSL Research University

Professor Dirk Guldi, Friedrich Alexander Universität

Dr Christian Hackenberger, Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FMP)

Dr Takashi Hisatomi, The University of Tokyo

Dr Paul Knochel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

Professor Jun Kubota, Fukuoka University

Professor Stefan Matile, Universite de Geneve

Professor Frank Wuerthner, Universitaet Wuerzburg

Professor Juyoung Yoon, Ewha Womans University

We would also like to thank the Chemical Science board and the General Chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

If you would like to become a reviewer for our journal, just email us with details of your research interests and an up-to-date CV or résumé. You can find more details in our author and reviewer resource centre

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First observation of unusual hemi bond

07 Feb 2017

By Rebecca Withers.

Experimental evidence for two-centre three-electron bond described as ‘a triumph of spectroscopy’

Researchers in Japan have observed the stable hemi-bonded structure of (H2S)n+ (n = 3–6). Using infra-red (IR) spectroscopy, the team has experimental evidence for this unusual, previously only theoretically predicted, structure.

The two-centre three-electron (2c–3e) bond, also known as a hemi bond, was first proposed by Linus Pauling in the 1930s. It is formed by the lone pair orbitals of a neutral molecule and its radical cation overlapping, causing the bonding sigma orbital to be doubly occupied and the antibonding sigma* orbital to be singly occupied.

Read the full story by Suzanne Howson on Chemistry World.

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Stabilization of the world’s smallest lasso

07 Feb 2017

By Rebecca Withers.

Molecular snare threads through itself under redox conditions

The world’s smallest lasso has been created by scientists in Saudi Arabia and the US. The molecular device threads through itself, forming a reversible noose, in response to chemical and electronic stimuli.

The research team, led by 2016 Nobel prize-winner Fraser Stoddart of Northwestern University, were inspired by naturally occurring lasso peptides – molecules produced by a variety of bacteria, which consist of a linear peptide tail laced through a macrolactam ring.

Read the full story by Jamie Durrani on Chemistry World.

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Meet Michelle Chang: Chemical Science Associate Editor

25 Jan 2017

By Rebecca Withers.

In August last year, we were delighted to welcome Professor Michelle Chang as Chemical Science Associate Editor, handling submissions in the area of chemical biology.

Michelle C. Chang earned a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and in French Literature at the University of California in San Diego. This was followed by research as a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and as a M.I.T./Merck Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. In 2004, she obtained her Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Professor JoAnne Stubbe and Professor Daniel G. Nocera.

After a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, she joined the faculty where she is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry.

Michelle’s team uses the approaches of mechanistic biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology to address problems in energy and human health. Her group designs and creates new biosynthetic pathways in microbial hosts for in vivo production of biofuels from abundant crop feedstocks and pharmaceuticals from natural products or natural product scaffolds.

Below is a list of hot Chemical Science articles published within Michelle’s area of expertise – all free to read. We hope you enjoy them!

Assembly Line Termination in Cylindrocyclophane Biosynthesis: Discovery of an Editing Type II Thioesterase Domain in a Type I Polyketide Synthase
H. Nakamura, J.X. Wang and E.P. Balskus
Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 3816-3822
DOI: 10.1039/C4SC03132F

An enantioselective artificial Suzukiase based on the biotin–streptavidin technology
Anamitra Chatterjee, Hendrik Mallin, Juliane Klehr, Jaicy Vallapurackal, Aaron D. Finke, Laura Vera, May Marshb and Thomas R. Ward
Chem. Sci., 2016,7,673-677
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC03116H

Next-generation disulfide stapling: reduction and functional re-bridging all in one
Maximillian T. W. Lee, Antoine Maruani, James R. Baker, Stephen Caddicka and Vijay Chudasama
Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 799-802
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02666K

Activity modulation and allosteric control of a scaffolded DNAzyme using a dynamic DNA nanostructure
Xiuhai Mao, Anna J. Simon, Hao Pei, Jiye Shi, Jiang Li, Qing Huang, Kevin W. Plaxcob and Chunhai Fan
Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 1200-1204
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC03705K

You can submit your high quality research in the area of chemical biology to Michelle Chang’s Editorial Office.

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Chemical Science Blog

Molecular suit provides basic protection

Chemical Science lighting talk prize winner at UCCS 2017

Tamed radicals expand chemical space

Neural network provides accurate simulations without the cost

Awardees of the IUPAC 2017 distinguished women in chemistry or chemical engineering

Putting the ‘ant’ in antibiotics

Outstanding Reviewers for Chemical Science in 2016

First observation of unusual hemi bond

Stabilization of the world’s smallest lasso

Meet Michelle Chang: Chemical Science Associate Editor

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