Discovery of lipid-mediated protein-protein interactions in living cells using metabolic labeling with photoactivatable clickable probes.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are essential and pervasive regulatory elements in biology. Despite the development of a range of techniques to probe PPIs in living systems, there is a dearth of approaches to capture interactions driven by specific post-translational modifications (PTMs). Myristoylation is a lipid PTM added to more than 200 human proteins, where it may regulate membrane localization, stability or activity.

Catalytic C-H to C-M (M = Al, Mg) bond transformations with heterometallic complexes.

C-H functionalisation is one of the cornerstones of modern catalysis and remains a topic of contemporary interest due its high efficiency and atom-economy. Among these reactions, C-H borylation, that is the transformation of C-H to C-B bonds, has experienced a fast development because of the wide utility of organoboron reagents as synthetic intermediates. The mechanistic background is now well-understood and the role of transition metal boryl or σ-borane intermediates in this transformation is well documented.

Charge accumulation kinetics in multi-redox molecular catalysts immobilised on TiO.

Multi-redox catalysis requires the accumulation of more than one charge carrier and is crucial for solar energy conversion into fuels and valuable chemicals. In photo(electro)chemical systems, however, the necessary accumulation of multiple, long-lived charges is challenged by recombination with their counterparts. Herein, we investigate charge accumulation in two model multi-redox molecular catalysts for proton and CO reduction attached onto mesoporous TiO electrodes.

Palladium-catalysed C-F alumination of fluorobenzenes: mechanistic diversity and origin of selectivity.

A palladium pre-catalyst, [Pd(PCy)] is reported for the efficient and selective C-F alumination of fluorobenzenes with the aluminium(i) reagent [{(ArNCMe)CH}Al] (, Ar = 2,6-di-iso-propylphenyl). The catalytic protocol results in the transformation of sp C-F bonds to sp C-Al bonds and provides a route to reactive organoaluminium complexes () from fluorocarbons. The catalyst is highly active.

A highly stable RNA aptamer probe for the retinoblastoma protein in live cells.

Although RNA aptamers can show comparable or better specificity and affinity to antibodies and have the advantage of being able to access different live cell compartments, they are often much less stable . We report here the first aptamer that binds human retinoblastoma protein (RB) and is stable in live cells. RB is both a key protein in cell cycle control and also a tumour suppressor.