Enzymatic Fluoromethylation as a Tool for ATP-Independent Ligation.

-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferases are involved in countless biological processes, including signal transduction, epigenetics, natural product biosynthesis, and detoxification. Only a handful of carboxylate methyltransferases have evolved to participate in amide bond formation. In this report we show that enzyme-catalyzed F-methylation of carboxylate substrates produces F-methyl esters that readily react with - or -nucleophiles under physiological conditions.

A Visible-Light Promoted Amine Oxidation Catalyzed by a Cp*Ir Complex.

Through a rapid screening of Cp*Ir complexes based on a turn-on type fluorescence readout, a [Cp*Ir(dipyrido[3,2-a : 2',3'-c]phenazine)Cl] complex was found to catalyze the blue-light promoted dehydrogenation of -heterocycles under physiological conditions. In the dehydrogenation of tetrahydroisoquinolines, the catalyst preferentially yielded the monodehydrogenated product, accompanying HO generation. We surmise that this mechanism may be reminiscent of flavin-dependent oxidases.

Bioinspired Molecular Factories with Architecture and In Vivo Functionalities as Cell Mimics.

Despite huge need in the medical domain and significant development efforts, artificial cells to date have limited composition and functionality. Although some artificial cells have proven successful for producing therapeutics or performing in vitro specific reactions, they have not been investigated in vivo to determine whether they preserve their architecture and functionality while avoiding toxicity. Here, these limitations are overcome and customizable cell mimic is achieved-molecular factories (MFs)-by supplementing giant plasma membrane vesicles derived from donor cells with nanometer-sized artificial organelles (AOs).