The de novo design of a protein capable of binding a cofactor in a unique orientation is a challenging problem because a range of structurally similar, yet different, complexes are often formed. Now, a team led by former graduate student Nick Polizzi and by Professors David N.

The Malcolmson lab has reported a new class of reagents, 2-azadienes, for the catalytic enantioselective construction of chiral amines.  The 2-azadienes demonstrate reverse polarity (umpolung) of an enamine, facilitating catalytic addition of a nucleophile to its N-b-carbon and subsequent stereos

Biology is well known to manipulate energy using proton-coupled electron transfer and phosphorylation reactions.  It was found recently that energy conversion can also occur via a new class of reactions, known as electron bifurcation reactions.

The Wang, Malcolmson and Warren labs have teamed up to use diazirines as molecular imaging tags for biomedical applications.

Equilibrating glass-forming liquids is notoriously hard; Duke chemists and their collaborators in France have developed a way to circumvent this obstacle, enabling studies of extremely sluggish liquids.

A recent publication in Nature Communications on selective carbon dioxide hydrogenation using plasmonic rhodium catalysts by the Liu lab and collaborators has been selected as one of eight featured articles in the

The Hargrove Lab compared bioactive ligands that target RNA to current FDA-approved drugs, nearly all of which target proteins. With the help of the Beratan Lab, they identified key differences in physical, structural, and spatial properties that distinguish RNA-targeted bioactive ligands.

The Therien Lab, teamed with chemists at UC San Francisco, have created a synthetic protein that tightly binds a non-biological catalyst, a type of molecule called porphyrin that is capable of stealing electrons from other molecules when it absorbs light.  Read more about how the “protein gator”

A recent molecule, Takinib, developed by the Derbyshire and Haystead's labs, has been found to induce cell death in cancer cells by inhibiting the enzyme TAK-1.  Current testing is focused on Takinib’s possible therapeutic benefits in r

The Welsher Lab has created a 3D Virus Cam that can track particles that are faster moving and less bright than previous microscopes.