Parallel Proteomic and Transcriptomic Microenvironment Mapping (μMap) of Nuclear Condensates in Living Cells.

Cellular activity is spatially organized across different organelles. While several structures are well-characterized, many organelles have unknown roles. Profiling biomolecular composition is key to understanding function but is difficult to achieve in the context of small, dynamic structures.

Iron-Catalyzed Cross-Electrophile Coupling for the Formation of All-Carbon Quaternary Centers.

Quaternary carbon centers are desirable targets for drug discovery and complex molecule synthesis, yet the synthesis of these motifs within traditional cross-coupling paradigms remains a significant challenge due to competing β-hydride elimination pathways. In contrast, the bimolecular homolytic substitution (S2) mechanism offers a unique and attractive alternative pathway. Metal porphyrin complexes have emerged as privileged catalysts owing to their ability to selectively form primary metal-alkyl complexes, thereby eliminating the challenges associated with tertiary alkyl complexation with a metal center.

μMap-Interface: Temporal Photoproximity Labeling Identifies F11R as a Functional Member of the Transient Phagocytic Surfaceome.

Phagocytosis is usually carried out by professional phagocytic cells in the context of pathogen response or wound healing. The transient surface proteins that regulate phagocytosis pose a challenging proteomics target; knowledge thereof could lead to new therapeutic insights. Herein, we describe a novel photocatalytic proximity labeling method: "μMap-Interface", allowing for spatiotemporal mapping of phagocytosis.

µMap proximity labeling in living cells reveals stress granule disassembly mechanisms.

Phase-separated condensates are membrane-less intracellular structures comprising dynamic protein interactions that organize essential biological processes. Understanding the composition and dynamics of these organelles advances our knowledge of cellular behaviors and disease pathologies related to granule dysregulation. In this study, we apply microenvironment mapping with a HaloTag-based platform (HaloMap) to characterize intracellular stress granule dynamics in living cells.

Unlocking carbene reactivity by metallaphotoredox α-elimination.

The ability to tame high-energy intermediates is important for synthetic chemistry, enabling the construction of complex molecules and propelling advances in the field of synthesis. Along these lines, carbenes and carbenoid intermediates are particularly attractive, but often unknown, high-energy intermediates. Classical methods to access metal carbene intermediates exploit two-electron chemistry to form the carbon-metal bond.

Triple Radical Sorting: Aryl-Alkylation of Alkenes.

The cross-coupling of aryl bromides with alkenes can provide access to diverse combinatorial chemical space. Two-component couplings between these partners are well-known, but three-component aryl-functionalizations of unactivated alkenes remain underdeveloped. In particular, the aryl-alkylation of unactivated alkenes would allow for rapid construction of molecular complexity and the expedient exploration of a pharmaceutically relevant and C(sp)-rich structural landscape.

Free-Radical Deoxygenative Amination of Alcohols via Copper Metallaphotoredox Catalysis.

Alcohols are among the most abundant chemical feedstocks, yet they remain vastly underutilized as coupling partners in transition metal catalysis. Herein, we describe a copper metallaphotoredox manifold for the open shell deoxygenative coupling of alcohols with -nucleophiles to forge C()-N bonds, a linkage of high value in pharmaceutical agents that is challenging to access via conventional cross-coupling techniques. -heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-mediated conversion of alcohols into the corresponding alkyl radicals followed by copper-catalyzed C-N coupling renders this platform successful for a broad range of structurally unbiased alcohols and 18 classes of -nucleophiles.

Current advances in photocatalytic proximity labeling.

Understanding the intricate network of biomolecular interactions that govern cellular processes is a fundamental pursuit in biology. Over the past decade, photocatalytic proximity labeling has emerged as one of the most powerful and versatile techniques for studying these interactions as well as uncovering subcellular trafficking patterns, drug mechanisms of action, and basic cellular physiology. In this article, we review the basic principles, methodologies, and applications of photocatalytic proximity labeling as well as examine its modern development into currently available platforms.

Engaging Alkenes in Metallaphotoredox: A Triple Catalytic, Radical Sorting Approach to Olefin-Alcohol Cross-Coupling.

Metallaphotoredox cross-coupling is a well-established strategy for generating clinically privileged aliphatic scaffolds via single-electron reactivity. Correspondingly, expanding metallaphotoredox to encompass new C()-coupling partners could provide entry to a novel, medicinally relevant chemical space. In particular, alkenes are abundant, bench-stable, and capable of versatile C()-radical reactivity via metal-hydride hydrogen atom transfer (MHAT), although metallaphotoredox methodologies invoking this strategy remain underdeveloped.

Alcohol-alcohol cross-coupling enabled by S2 radical sorting.

Alcohols represent a functional group class with unparalleled abundance and structural diversity. In an era of chemical synthesis that prioritizes reducing time to target and maximizing exploration of chemical space, harnessing these building blocks for carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions is a key goal in organic chemistry. In particular, leveraging a single activation mode to form a new C(sp)-C(sp) bond from two alcohol subunits would enable access to an extraordinary level of structural diversity.

Couple-close construction of polycyclic rings from diradicals.

Heteroarenes are ubiquitous motifs in bioactive molecules, conferring favourable physical properties when compared to their arene counterparts. In particular, semisaturated heteroarenes possess attractive solubility properties and a higher fraction of sp carbons, which can improve binding affinity and specificity. However, these desirable structures remain rare owing to limitations in current synthetic methods.

Development of a General Organophosphorus Radical Trap: Deoxyphosphonylation of Alcohols.

Here we report the design of a general, redox-switchable organophosphorus alkyl radical trap that enables the synthesis of a broad range of C()-P(V) modalities. This "plug-and-play" approach relies upon activation of alcohols and O═P(R)H motifs, two broadly available and inexpensive sources of molecular complexity. The mild, photocatalytic deoxygenative strategy described herein allows for the direct conversion of sugars, nucleosides, and complex pharmaceutical architectures to their organophosphorus analogs.

Direct Bioisostere Replacement Enabled by Metallaphotoredox Deoxydifluoromethylation.

The replacement of a functional group with its corresponding bioisostere is a widely employed tactic during drug discovery campaigns that allows medicinal chemists to improve the ADME properties of candidates while maintaining potency. However, the incorporation of bioisosteres typically requires lengthy de novo resynthesis of potential candidates, which represents a bottleneck in their broader evaluation. An alternative would be to directly convert a functional group into its corresponding bioisostere at a late stage.

Alkene dialkylation by triple radical sorting.

The development of bimolecular homolytic substitution (S2) catalysis has expanded cross-coupling chemistries by enabling the selective combination of any primary radical with any secondary or tertiary radical through a radical sorting mechanism. Biomimetic S2 catalysis can be used to merge common feedstock chemicals-such as alcohols, acids and halides-in various permutations for the construction of a single C(sp)-C(sp) bond. The ability to sort these two distinct radicals across commercially available alkenes in a three-component manner would enable the simultaneous construction of two C(sp)-C(sp) bonds, greatly accelerating access to complex molecules and drug-like chemical space.

Exploiting the Marcus inverted region for first-row transition metal-based photoredox catalysis.

Second- and third-row transition metal complexes are widely employed in photocatalysis, whereas earth-abundant first-row transition metals have found only limited use because of the prohibitively fast decay of their excited states. We report an unforeseen reactivity mode for productive photocatalysis that uses cobalt polypyridyl complexes as photocatalysts by exploiting Marcus inverted region behavior that couples increases in excited-state energies with increased excited-state lifetimes. These cobalt (III) complexes can engage in bimolecular reactivity by virtue of their strong redox potentials and sufficiently long excited-state lifetimes, catalyzing oxidative C(sp)-N coupling of aryl amides with challenging sterically hindered aryl boronic acids.

One-Pot Synthesis of Sulfonamides from Unactivated Acids and Amines via Aromatic Decarboxylative Halosulfonylation.

The coupling of carboxylic acids and amines to form amide linkages is the most commonly performed reaction in the pharmaceutical industry. Herein, we report a new strategy that merges these traditional amide coupling partners to generate sulfonamides, important amide bioisosteres. This method leverages copper ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) to convert aromatic acids to sulfonyl chlorides, followed by one-pot amination to form the corresponding sulfonamide.

Photoredox Catalysis-Enabled Sulfination of Alcohols and Bromides.

Sulfinates are important lynchpin intermediates in pharmaceutical production; however, their synthesis via photoredox catalysis is challenging because of their facile oxidation. We herein disclose a photocatalytic strategy for the direct conversion of alcohols and alkyl bromides into alkyl sulfinates. These transformations are enabled by the utilization of easily oxidized radical precursors─namely, alcohol -heterocyclic carbene adducts and -adamantyl aminosupersilane─that facilitate efficient synthesis of the oxidatively labile sulfinate products.

μMap Photoproximity Labeling Enables Small Molecule Binding Site Mapping.

The characterization of ligand binding modes is a crucial step in the drug discovery process and is especially important in campaigns arising from phenotypic screening, where the protein target and binding mode are unknown at the outset. Elucidation of target binding regions is typically achieved by X-ray crystallography or photoaffinity labeling (PAL) approaches; yet, these methods present significant challenges. X-ray crystallography is a mainstay technique that has revolutionized drug discovery, but in many cases structural characterization is challenging or impossible.

Rapid and Modular Access to Quaternary Carbons from Tertiary Alcohols via Bimolecular Homolytic Substitution.

Quaternary carbons are ubiquitous in bioactive molecules; however, synthetic methods for the construction of this motif remain underdeveloped. Here, we report the synthesis of quaternary carbons from tertiary alcohols, a class of structurally diverse, bench-stable feedstocks, via the merger of photoredox catalysis and iron-mediated S2 bond formation. This alcohol-bromide cross-coupling is enabled by a novel halogen-atom transfer (XAT) reagent, which is the first reductively activated XAT reagent to be reported.

Redefining the Synthetic Logic of Medicinal Chemistry. Photoredox-Catalyzed Reactions as a General Tool for Aliphatic Core Functionalization.

C(sp)-rich aliphatic motifs in drug molecules are strongly associated with clinical success. Historically, the availability of compound libraries based on C(sp)-rich cores has been limited due to the challenging direct functionalization of aliphatic rings. Instead, most small molecule drug-like libraries are diversified around central aromatic rings.

Tracking chromatin state changes using nanoscale photo-proximity labelling.

Interactions between biomolecules underlie all cellular processes and ultimately control cell fate. Perturbation of native interactions through mutation, changes in expression levels or external stimuli leads to altered cellular physiology and can result in either disease or therapeutic effects. Mapping these interactions and determining how they respond to stimulus is the genesis of many drug development efforts, leading to new therapeutic targets and improvements in human health.

General access to cubanes as benzene bioisosteres.

The replacement of benzene rings with sp-hybridized bioisosteres in drug candidates generally improves pharmacokinetic properties while retaining biological activity. Rigid, strained frameworks such as bicyclo[1.1.

Expedient Access to Underexplored Chemical Space: Deoxygenative C(sp)-C(sp) Cross-Coupling.

Alcohols are commercially abundant and structurally diverse reservoirs of sp-hybridized chemical space. However, the direct utilization of alcohols in C-C bond-forming cross-couplings remains underexplored. Herein we report an N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-mediated deoxygenative alkylation of alcohols and alkyl bromides via nickel-metallaphotoredox catalysis.

Late-Stage C()-H Methylation of Drug Molecules.

Methyl groups are well understood to play a critical role in pharmaceutical molecules, especially those bearing saturated heterocyclic cores. Accordingly, methods that install methyl groups onto complex molecules are highly coveted. Late-stage C-H functionalization is a particularly attractive approach, allowing chemists to bypass lengthy syntheses and facilitating the expedited synthesis of drug analogues.

Rapid Access to 2-Substituted Bicyclo[1.1.1]pentanes.

The replacement of aryl rings with saturated carbocyclic structures has garnered significant interest in drug discovery due to the potential for improved pharmacokinetic properties upon substitution. In particular, 1,3-difunctionalized bicyclo[1.1.