Well done to Mike (again ;-)), Pablo and Rosina, who was an final year project student in our group, for their latest paper on the synthesis, biophysical characterization and in vitro screening of a series of stiff-stilbene G4 binding ligands featuring differing electronics, side-chain chemistries and molecular geometries. The ligands display selectivity for G4 DNA over duplex DNA and exhibit nanomolar toxicity against Trypasanoma brucei and HeLa cancer cells whist remaining

Congrats to Michael, Javi and Susanta for their recent publication on the selective targeting of telomeric G4 DNA with a dithienylethene ligand. We demonstrate the robust visible-light mediated switching of the G4 ligand binding mode and G-tetrad structure in physiologically-relevant conditions. The toxicity of the ligand to cervical cancer cells is modulated by the photoisomeric state of the ligand, indicating for the first time the potential of G4 to serve as a target for p

Congratulation to Alex Henderson's last publication from his PhD work where we report the practical synthesis of pseudo-enantiomeric carbohydrate-based NHC–Rh complexes bearing C1 or C3 sterically differentiated positions. We show that steric bulk at C1 gives preference for (S)-phenyl-1-ethanol, while bulk at C3 leads to the (R)-enantiomer, leading to enantiotopic Q2 discrimination.

Well done to Mattie, Helene and Abhijit for their latest paper on the use of Rh/Al2O3 as an effective chemo-selective reductive catalyst that combines the mild conditions of catalytic hydrogenation with high selectivity for azide moieties in the presence of other hydrogenolysis labile groups such as benzyl and benzyloxycarbonyl functionalities.