Nature Chemistry, Published online: 11 May 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01199-w The metallophilic interaction between cyclometalated palladium complexes can facilitate supramolecular nanostructure formation in living mice, providing a phototoxic prodrug with a long circulation time and high tumour-targeting efficiency. Upon green light irradiation, this palladium-based drug destroys solid tumours, leaving non-irradiated organs intact ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 11 May 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01197-y Catenanes that are chiral owing to the relative orientation of their rings have always been referred to as ‘topologically chiral’. It is now shown that although in specific cases the stereochemistry is a topological property of the structure, the underlying stereogenic unit itself is not inherently topological in nature ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 05 May 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01185-2 Organisms that glow are perhaps eerie. Vadim Viviani ponders on the luciferin–luciferase systems responsible for their intriguing bioluminescence ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 05 May 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01206-0 Chloride in the battery pool ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 01 May 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01165-6 Catalytic enantioselective approaches to access chiral organophosphorus compounds are rare. A two-stage catalytic strategy for the synthesis of diverse enantioenriched P(V) compounds has now been developed: a bifunctional iminophosphorane superbase enables enantioselective nucleophilic desymmetrization, followed by downstream enantiospecific diversification of the resulting intermediate by substitution with medicinally relevant O-, N- and S-based nucleophiles ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 28 April 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01213-1 Publisher Correction: OregonFluor enables quantitative intracellular paired agent imaging to assess drug target availability in live cells and tissues ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 27 April 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01192-3 Functionalization of unsymmetrical internal alkenes usually takes place with low regioselectivity, giving a mixture of isomers. Now, a highly regio- and enantioselective remote 1,n-dioxygenation of internal alkenes using a palladium catalyst has been developed for the synthesis of chiral 1,n-diols. Regioselectivity tuning was demonstrated by altering the rate-determining step, enabled by the phenyl-substituted Pyox ligand ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 27 April 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01178-1 The ability to detect and quantify a given analyte at the molecular level is a long-lasting goal for analytical and bioanalytical chemistry. This Review highlights how single-molecule junctions (SMJs) have been used for analytical purposes, from the detection of isomers and reaction intermediates to the detection of proteins and nucleic acids. Different SMJ approaches are discussed, along with their advantages and limitations over bulk analytical techniques ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 27 April 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01196-z Precise analysis of DNA–protein interactions can help to better understand various biological processes. Now, the ‘light-induced lysine (K) enabled crosslinking’ strategy (shortened to ‘LIKE-XL’) has been developed for spatiotemporal and global profiling of DNA–protein interactions, affording the discovery of low-affinity interactions between transcription factors and DNA using sequence-specific DNA baits ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 27 April 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-023-01193-2 The inability to access well-defined polysaccharides in sufficient quantities has hampered our understanding of their structure–function relationships. Now it has been shown that native precision polysaccharides can be readily prepared via living polymerization of 1,6-anhydrosugars. The obtained polymers display excellent chemical recyclability, suggesting their potential utility as a class of sustainable materials ..read more