science
Haemprotein catalysis makes chiral oxazolidinones from unactivated alkenes
A peer-reviewed Nature study reports a haemprotein-catalysed reaction sequence that makes chiral oxazolidinones directly from unactivated alkenes.
Khabre desk
Chemistry
Recent reporting, analysis and explainers from the Chemistry desk.
science
RetroChimera combines AI models for chemical retrosynthesis
A Nature paper introduces RetroChimera, an AI model that combines two chemically different modelling approaches to predict routes for synthesising small molecules. The researchers report stronger performance than leading baselines, favourable evaluations from organic chemists and transfer to internal pharmaceutical datasets.
science
Study finds random ligand changes improved potency tenfold in 11.3% of tests
A Nature study systematically made 257 small chemical changes to 18 ligands across six targets. Eleven-point-three percent improved measured affinity or potency at least tenfold, but those gains often came with worse in-vitro pharmacokinetic properties.