The 3Rd Transatlantic Frontiers in Chemistry Symposium

GUEST EDITORIAL

DOI: 10.1002/chem.201303417

The 3rd Transatlantic Frontiers in Chemistry Symposium

Anastassia N. Alexandrova,*[a] Stefan M. Huber,*[b] and Ali Tavassoli*[c]

The 3rd Transatlantic Frontiers of Chemistry Symposium, set of topics that were grouped into related sessions. The held at Kloster Seeon in Germany on August 8–11, 2013 meeting started with an address by representatives of the or- brought together 60 early-career chemistry academics from ganizing committee (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Germany (20), UK (18), USA (16) and for the first time, American Chemical Society, and Royal Society of Chemis- Brazil (6). The aims of the conference were to enable inter- try; Figure 2), followed by remarks from the conference national, multidisciplinary networking and collaboration op- chair, Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Arndt: “you are in one of the portunities in the relaxing settings of a beautiful old monas- most beautiful parts of Germany, with plenty of things to do tery by a lake (Figure 1). The program included a diverse and see in the area. Unfortunately you will be spending quite a bit of your time during the coming days in this lecture theater…” (Figure 3). Each delegate was then asked to standup and introduce them- selves, and it was immediately clear, that despite the involve- ment of only four national chemical societies, this was a truly international conference, with multiple countries represented; a running theme of this section was that most delegates were dual nationals Figure 1. Kloster Seeon: the setting for the 3rd Transatlantic Frontiers of Chemistry Symposium; photo: A. and many were working in Alexandrova. a different country from which they had done their first degree. The international composition of the meeting was further commented upon by Prof. [a] Dr. A. N. Alexandrova Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Dr. Helmut Schwarz (President of the Humboldt Founda- University of California Los Angeles tion) during his after dinner lecture, as being in keeping Los Angeles, CA 90095-1569 (USA) with Alexander von Humboldts vision of science without E-mail: [email protected] borders (Figure 4). [b] Dr. S. M. Huber Department Chemie, Technische Universitt Mnchen 85747, Garching (Germany) E-mail: [email protected] Functional Materials and Catalysts [c] Dr. A. Tavassoli Chemistry, University of Southampton The scientific program opened with the first session on Southampton, SO17 1BJ (UK) functional materials, which promise solutions to contempo- and rary energy conversion and storage problems through effi- Cancer Sciences, University of Southampton Southampton SO16 6YD (UK) cient catalysis, CO2 sequestration, and more. Through the E-mail: [email protected] most advanced methods of material synthesis, design, and

Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 15777 – 15783 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 15777 in Munich has designed purely covalent organic frameworks (COFs), which are exceptional- ly light materials accessible through conventional organic synthesis routes. Mesoporous material architecture was further masterfully explored by Delia Milliron (Lawrence Ber- keley National Laboratory). Her group develops methods for arranging colloidal nanocrystals into electrochemically active composites. Strategic preparation of such materials Figure 2. Some of the invited guests and members of the organizing committee for the symposium: Back row allows for the appearance of left to right: Hans-Georg Weinig (GDCh), Christian P. R. Hackenberger (Berlin), Eckhard Ottow (Vice Presi- dent, GDCh), Helge B. Bode (Frankfurt), Daniel B. Werz (Braunschweig), Peter Gçlitz (Wiley-VCH), Sven interesting properties, such as Schneider (Gçttingen), Helmut Schwarz (President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation), Hans- ionic conductivity and dynami- Dieter Arndt (Jena), Robert Parker (CEO, RSC), Bradley D. Miller (ACS), James Hutchinson (RSC); front cal optical response, given by row left to right: Marinda Li Wu (President, ACS), Eva Wille (Wiley-VCH), Kelen Fureigh (ACS), Rachel both the overall material archi- O’Reilly (Warwick), Danica Fujimori (San Franscisco), Timo Jacob (Ulm), Anastassia N. Alexandrova (Los Angeles), Edward Anderson (Oxford); photo: A. Wirt and H.-G. Weinig (GDCh). tecture and the properties of its building blocks. characterization, participants targeted the key applications On the solar cell front, Thomas Hamann (Michigan State relevant to modern problems such as photovoltaics and University) focused on reducing the cost of materials in use. solar energy conversion, heterogeneous catalysis, electroana- His strategy is the design of efficient dye-sensitized solar lytical chemistry, and even drug delivery. cells based on nanoparticle TiO2 electrodes. Matt Law (Uni- versity of California, Irvine) aims to utilize colloidal films of Mesoporous materials are currently undergoing a boom, quantum dots to do the same job. The key aspect here is to and received deserved attention at the TFOC Symposium. make these systems conductive; electrical conductivity is Mircea Dincaˇ (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) de- achieved via inter-QD tunneling, which can be manipulated tailed his vision to make metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) through particle size, doping, and inter-particle spacing. electrically conductive. Such MOFs would be an exciting type of new material, since they would be thermally insulat- Rachel OReilly (Warwick University) has found a way to ing (by definition, since they are mesoporous), and at the attach small fluorescent labels, dithiomaleimides, to poly- same time electrically conductive. By intertwining MOFs mers, which allowed for tracking polymer conformations in with molecular conductors, charge mobility surpassing that a variety of applications, such as drug delivery and forma- of many organic semiconductors was achieved. Departing tion of nanostructures. Even DNA can be labeled in this from MOFs, Bettina Lotsch from the Max Planck Institute way without the disruption of its structure, which provides an amazing insight into its structure and function in a variety of contexts.

Overall, the materials group provided a set of “appetizers” from their diverse and rapidly expanding field, teasing the TFOC participants and guests with what materials can do, and how scientists can strategically design them for desired properties.

The next session on metal-centered catalysis included three fundamental studies on transition-metal complexes with nitrogen- or carbon-based ligands. In the context of using am- monia as an energy carrier, Sven Schneider (University of Gçttingen) presented work on square-planar iridium nitrido complexes, their electronic characterization and the coupling of such species to form dinitrogen. Studying close chemical Figure 3. The conference chairman, Hans-Dieter Arndt, Friedrich-Schiller relatives, namely highly reactive copper tosylnitrene com- University Jena; photo: A. Wirt and H.-G. Weinig (GDCh). plexes, Kallol Ray (Humboldt University Berlin) showed

15778 www.chemeurj.org 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 15777 – 15783 3rd Transatlantic Frontiers in Chemistry Symposium GUEST EDITORIAL

imes on Ru-dye-sensitized TiO2 and the use of these hybrid

materials for photocatalytic H2 production.

Chemistry In Silico

A tight theory and computation group presented two vi- brant sessions at the TFOC Symposium. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of the meeting, the theorists made a significant effort to come down to earth and explain to non-experts what they do and how they do it. Perhaps for this reason, the “out of silico” participants were able to greatly enjoy the in silico part of the meeting. Chemistry in silico exists in a wide spectrum between isolated formal theory and pure computation done as a “cherry on top of an experimental cake”, with the healthy middle being the most exciting, as exemplified by the speakers. Theory not only provides explanation for existing experimental observations, but also gives new chemical and physical insights inaccessi- ble through the experiment, and also pushes the develop- Figure 4. President of the Humboldt Foundation Helmut Schwarz who gave the after-dinner lecture entitled “Overcoming Frontiers in Science: ment of new enabling methodologies. The presentations Messages and Recommendations of the Humboldt Foundation”; photo: clustered around several modern challenges for theory: non- A. Wirt and H.-G. Weinig (GDCh). equilibrium and quantum effects in chemical reactions (David Glowacki, University of Bristol; Johannes Kstner, University of Stuttgart; Thomas Miller, California Institute of Technology), proper many-body description of weak in- that these intermediates can be trapped by Lewis acids such teractions (Alexandre Tkatchenko, Fritz-Haber-Institut der as scandium triflate, allowing the complete characterization Max Planck-Gesellschaft; Lasse Jensen, Pennsylvania State of such species at À908C and subsequent studies on their University), and multi-scale dynamic treatment of complex chemical reactivity. Viktoria Gessner (University of Wrz- systems (Anastassia Alexandrova, Thomas Miller, California burg) rounded out this area of research with her studies on Institute of Technology, Timo Jacob, Ulm University); as geminal-dianion-derived carbene ligands as electronic alter- well as key challenging applications: reaction mechanisms natives to the well-known Fischer- and Schrock-type car- and dynamics (Robert Paton, University of Oxford; Jo- benes. The application of transition-metal complexes to or- hannes Kstner, University of Stuttgart; David Glowacki, ganic synthesis was the main focus of talks by Igor Larrosa University of Bristol; Anastassia Alexandrova, University of (Queen Mary University of London) and Stephen Thomas California Los Angeles, UCLA; Thomas Miller, California (University of Edinburgh). Larrosa showed how a combined Institute of Technology, Timo Jacob, Ulm University), elec- CÀH activation/decarboxylation strategy can be employed tron and proton transfer in biology (Thomas Miller, Califor- for formal meta-selective direct arylation reactions. In some nia Institute of Technology), enzymology and enzyme design contrast to these decarboxylation reactions, Thomas de- (Anastassia Alexandrova, UCLA; Thomas Miller, California scribed the synthesis of a-aryl carboxylic acids from styrene Institute of Technology, Robert Paton, University of II derivatives, using bench-stable Fe precatalysts, CO2, and Oxford), protein aggregation (Birgit Strodel, Research EtMgBr as hydride source. The focus of the three remaining Centre Jhlich), electrochemistry (Timo Jacob, Ulm Univer- speakers was on nano-sized structures. Pedro Camargo sity), and molecular surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (University of S¼o Paulo), one of the six participants from (Lasse Jensen, Pennsylvania State University). Brazil, presented solution-phase approaches to produce met- allic nanoparticles with controlled shapes, which find appli- Presentations stirred the audience away from the conven- cation as surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates or tional wisdom of textbooks. For example, the notion of clas- catalysts. Yu Huang (University of California, Los Angeles) sical paths in reaction mechanisms and dynamics was chal- then focused on molecular details of inorganic–organic inter- lenged and broken, twice. First, Johannes Kstner from the face interactions. She uses facet-specific peptide sequences University of Stuttgart opened the show with a demonstra- to produce Pt nanocrystals with predictable shape and ana- tion of how the inclusion of quantum-mechanical tunneling lyzes the binding mechanism by experimental and theoreti- in identifying reaction mechanisms could be crucial, and cal studies. Finally, Erwin Reisner (University of Cam- without it the wrong preferred mechanism could be predict- bridge) showed how enzymes and synthetic catalysts can be ed. David Glowacki from the University of Bristol brought integrated in nanostructured materials. More specifically, he further surprises: dynamics of chemical reactions can be described the immobilization of hydrogenases or cobalox- such that the full vibrational relaxation of every reaction in-

Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 15777 – 15783 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.chemeurj.org 15779 A. N. Alexandrova, S. M. Huber, and A. Tavassoli

termediate is often not achievable before the system crosses London Olympics in 2010. At the TFOC Symposium, dance- the next barrier on the reaction path. This again challenged room spectroscopy generated an excitement and a rain of the classical perspective of reaction mechanisms, in this in- jokes, such as a proposal to use the approach to find out stance from a non-equilibrium statistical mechanical stand- how much hotter heavy metal concerts are as compared to point. other kinds of people gatherings.

In silico research also yielded new controversial chemistry. Anastassia Alexandrova (University of California, Los An- Synthesis and Biosynthesis geles) challenged the catalytic activity of natural enzymes. The natural evolution of enzymes simultaneously optimizes In the session on synthetic methods development, Diogo many variables besides catalysis (protein stability in living Ldtke (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto cells, competition of different metals for metal binding sites, Alegre) presented his work on enantioselective arylation re- need for channels and chaperones, and the utilization of bio- actions of aldehydes, which are based on mixed aryl alkyl available and nontoxic components), whereas in vitro, most zinc compounds as arylating agents and chiral amino alco- of these constraints are removed, and therefore, catalysis hols as ligands. High diastereoselectivities could be achieved should be improvable. In this spirit, Alexandrova challenged in the reaction of achiral aryl alkyl zinc reagents with chiral the choices Nature has made for metals in certain biological substrates that were derived from carbohydrates or amino enzymes, and demonstrated and explained some surprising acids. Fascinating twists on cycloisomerization and -addition effects on their functionality and activity of metal replace- reactions were then reported by Christophe Assa (Universi- ment. Thomas Miller, California Institute of Technology ad- ty of Liverpool), Edward Anderson (University of Oxford), dressed the standing question of how and if quantum pro- and Tehshik Yoon (University of Wisconsin-Madison). In cesses, such as electron or proton transfer in proteins, the transition-metal catalyzed carbon–carbon bond activa- couple to protein dynamics. The answer, he suggested, is tion reactions discussed by Christophe Assa, intramolecular due to differences in time scales, they barely do. Instead, the hydroacylation of asymmetrically substituted alkylidenecy- protein undergoes its native dynamics until it reaches a con- clobutenes lead to cyclooctenone derivatives. The mecha- figuration favoring the quantum process, and then the latter nism of these RhI-catalyzed rearrangement reactions was happens rapidly with a minimal coupling to the surround- studied by isotope-labelling experiments, and up to three ings. carbon–carbon bond cleavage steps were found. Transition- metal-catalyzed cycloisomerizations are also the focus of the On the methodological front, the need for a multi-scale work by Edward Anderson, whose interests center on yna- treatment of complex chemical systems was emphasized. mides and enynamides. Palladium-catalyzed cyclizations of Techniques ranging from quantum electrodynamics, to path- enynamides (prepared from N-tosylated ynamides) lead to integral molecular dynamics (MD), ab initio electronic the synthesis of various nitrogen heterocycles with high ste- structure calculations, classical MD, coarse graining, and var- reoselectivity. Tehshik Yoon, on the other hand, performs ious application-based marriages of all of the above were diverse cycloaddition reactions using visible light photocatal- developed and virtuously used by the young researchers. ysis, thus rendering the use of ultraviolet light, which is com- Timo Jacob from Ulm University further advocated for the monly employed in photochemical syntheses, unnecessary. reactive force field MD, as a predictive tool for the mecha- He presented his work on diastereoselective [2+2] enone cy- nisms of electrochemical reactions in particular, which can cloaddition reactions using transition-metal photocatalysts ACHTUNGRE be complex and proceed through multiple possible path- such as Ru(bipy)3 in combination with a Lewis acid. The ways. Additionally, Alexandre Tkatchenko (Fritz-Haber-In- final two speakers studied substitution reactions of allylic stitut der Max Planck-Gesellschaft) warned us against the compounds. Ai-Lan Lee (Heriot-Watt University Edin- traditionally used pair-wise potentials for the description of burgh) reported the direct allylic etherification of allylic al- van der Waals interactions, and offered a comprehensive cohols with likewise unactivated alcohol nucleophiles. These I and affordable solution for the inclusion of many-body ef- Au -catalyzed reactions proceed via an SN2 mechanism and fects. feature high stereoselectivity (E) as well as broad substrate scope. The final speaker (Nuno Maulide, MPI Mlheim) As a finale to the in silico session, David Glowacki intro- had already impressed the audience on the previous day duced his Danceroom Spectroscopy initiative. A classical with this formidable mastery of the piano. Accompanied in MD simulation of molecules is run and visualized on a large part by an opera singer (the wife of Timo Jacob), Maulide screen. Real people (in the museum or a stadium) can then presented works of various composers including Bach and move and dance near the exhibit, and their motion is fed Hndel and introduced these pieces with insightful com- back into the MD simulation as an additional term in the ments on the respective composition techniques. In his sci- Hamiltonian. Thus people stir the molecules in real time entific contribution, he then demonstrated his equal mastery and observe the result on the screen, in what is the Worlds of allylic substitution reactions on cyclobutene derivatives, first large-scale interactive MD experience. Glowackis exhi- including deracemization and de-epimerization strategies. bition is now touring the world, and was featured at the

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in research funding has shifted in recent years too much to- The synthesis and biosynthesis session featured basic re- wards more industry/application-oriented projects; this was search studies by Niklaas Buurma (Cardiff University), also the theme of Prof. Dr. Helmut Schwarzs after dinner Stefan Huber (Technische Universitt Munich), and Steven lecture. Several participants suggested that the national sci- Goldup (Queen Mary University of London). Buurma de- entific societies should be doing more to lobby funding scribed the development of complex data analysis methods councils and politicians to stem the flow away from basic re- to dissect multiple-coupled equilibria, for example, in iso- search, and that researchers need to more actively promote thermal calorimetric titrations. The data analysis approach the fundamental importance of basic research (through out- was illustrated by the binding of p-conjugated heteroaro- reach activities) to the general public. The discussion on re- matics like terthiophenes to DNA. Calorimetric titrations search group organisation concluded with most participants were also employed by Huber to study the binding behav- agreeing that the step from a successful postdoctoral fellow iour of halogen-based Lewis acids to halides. These results to a principal investigator (PI) is very large, and universities enabled the use of such halogen-bond donors as organocata- need to provide far more training to early-career academics lysts in a carbon–carbon bond-forming reaction. Goldup to better prepare them for the challenges involved. With presented his approach to construct mechanically planar regard to industrial partnerships, three main challenges were chiral rotaxanes by a chiral auxiliary approach; the absolute identified in the breakout section. These include intellectual stereochemistry of the rotaxane, which comprises an achiral property issues (patents versus publications), the difficulty macrocycle and an achiral thread, was unambiguously as- of finding industrial partners (especially at an early stage of signed. The use of complex rearrangements in organic syn- one’s career), and difficulties in identifying mutually rele- thesis was then illustrated by Daniel Werz (University of vant and interesting research topics. Braunschweig) and Tanja Gaich (University of Hannover). Werz employed domino reactions based on donor–acceptor- substituted cyclopropanes to build up di- and oligomers of Natural Product Chemistry various five-membered heterocycles. The reported rearrangement cascade leads to (multiply) 3,3’-linked products. The chemical biology sessions were an excellent represen- Gaich showed how a Cope-type rearrangement may enable tation of the diversity and multidisciplinary nature of this carbon–carbon bond formation on the least nucleophilic 4- exciting field. Talks ranged from the development of new position of indoles, mimicking the key step in the proposed bio-conjugation methods for the labeling of proteins to the biosynthetic pathway of alkaloids by dimethylallyltrypto- use of chemical tools to understanding critical processes in phan synthase. The talks of Leandro Andrade (University of cancer. S¼o Paulo) and Rebecca Goss (University of St. Andrews) provided a thematic link to the following, more biologically The session on natural products focused on the discovery orientated sessions. Andrade studies enzymatic reactions of of novel, bioactive structures and scaffolds from a diverse organic substrates containing heteroatoms like selenium, variety of bacteria and fungi. The natural world remains boron, and silicon. In addition to this work, he also de- a fertile ground for the discovery of potential therapeutics, scribed his efforts to isolate previously unknown bacterial and several speakers detailed their efforts to uncover such strains from different environments, including the Antarctic molecules. Hendrik Luesch (University of Florida) detailed peninsula, providing fascinating details on the sample ac- his groups efforts in identifying an antimicrotube agent quisition in the latter habitat. Goss introduced genochemet- from marine cyanobacteria. Their efforts, including the total ics, that is the process of introducing a gene into an organ- synthesis of the parent molecule and several derivatives, as ism, which works in concert with an existing biosynthetic well as examining the biological activities of the compounds pathway of a natural product. By this method, a chemical opened this session. Another interesting use for natural handle is installed on the periphery of the natural product, products was outlined by Hans-Dieter Arndt (Friedrich- which allows for subsequent diversification of the parent Schiller-Universitt Jena). His group has utilized a fluores- compound by chemical means. cently labeled derivative of a compound that binds actin as an imaging tool. As natural products typically bind their targets with high affinity and selectivity this may be a useful Breakout approach to utilizing such molecules as imaging tools.

The meeting also included a breakout session, allowing the In order to manipulate living systems for the production of participants to discuss three pre-selected topics associated natural products and derivatives one must first understand with the running of a research group. These topics were the the pathways used to synthesize them. Several speakers in role of basic research in todays science, the challenges of this session outlined their groups efforts to understand the running and organising a group, and the role of industrial pathways used to make a variety of naturally occurring mol- partnerships. Each groups conclusions were presented to ecules in several organisms. These compounds ranged from the delegates in a subsequent joint discussion. With respect terpenes to non-ribosomal peptides. It was clear that the to basic research, the common concern was that the balance challenge of unraveling these pathways is significant, howev-

Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 15777 – 15783 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.chemeurj.org 15781 A. N. Alexandrova, S. M. Huber, and A. Tavassoli

Figure 5. The conference participants on the excursion to the Kampenwand mountain in Aschau; photo: A. Wirt and H.-G. Weinig (GDCh).

er, there is much potential in manipulating naturally occur- drops either side of the path taken by some to the summit ring pathways for the production of bioactive molecules. (Figure 6). The chairman was particularly keen to ensure that we did not lose any of the participants off the side of the mountain! This was followed by a traditional Bavarian Excursion into the Bavarian Countryside dinner at an “Alm-style” restaurant with beautiful views of the sun setting behind the mountains. Once back at the Despite the early morning starts, and late night finishes, monastery, several of the delegates decided to go for a late the conference was not all work, work, work. On the after- night swim in the lake. The next day, participants reported noon of the penultimate day, the participants enjoyed a hike warm midsummer night weather, the cool lake waters and up the beautiful Kampenwand mountain in Aschau excellent views of the Milky Way, and to top it all, excellent (Figure 5). The scenery was breathtaking, as were the sheer views of the Perseid meteor shower. As one delegate put it: “it was so beautiful and romantic, we were in the lake look- ing up and could clearly see the Milky Way, and then the meteors came. It was just a real shame that I was with a bunch of scientists and not my wife…”

Chemical Biology

The theme of understanding natural product biosynthesis pathways continued into the next session, titled “Tools in Chemical Biology” by Manuela Tosin (Warwick University). This and the following session titled “Methods and Process- es in Chemical Biology” offered a good representation of the increasing diversity of chemical biology research, and the future direction of this field. It is evident that a large number of chemists are using the wide variety of molecules, tools and techniques available to them to probe and understand biological pathways, networks, and systems. Ap- proaches such as metabolomics and chemoproteomics have (and continue to) significantly increase our understanding of the metabolic changes associated with cancer and have the potential to fundamentally alter our approach to treating Figure 6. Putting theory into practice: A few of the first to arrive at the this disease. Daniel Nomura (University of California, Ber- summit: left to right: David Glowacki, Timo Jacob, Thomas Miller III, Anastassia Alexandrova, Alexandre Tkatchenko, Lasse Jensen, Birgit keley) detailed the use of such a platform for the discovery Strodel; photo: A. Alexandrova. and characterization of the specificity of inhibitors that

15782 www.chemeurj.org 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 15777 – 15783 3rd Transatlantic Frontiers in Chemistry Symposium GUEST EDITORIAL target the same class of proteins. Another potentially signifi- two-step, chemoselective labeling reactions. This and several cant approach to treating disease is to target the protein– other talks demonstrated the significant advances being protein interaction of transcription factors that are activated made in the protein-labeling field, with the detailed mecha- in cancer. Ali Tavassoli (University of Southampton) de- nistic understanding of chemists enabling the development tailed discovery and validation of cyclic peptide inhibitors of of novel labeling reagents for use in imaging biological sys- these “undruggable” targets. Using engineered bacteria, li- tems. Classic chemical reactions are being continually adapt- braries of around 100 million cyclic peptides were screened ed for use as novel bioorthogonal reactions (as detailed by for inhibitors of two transcription factors critical to tumor Neal Devaraj from the University of California, San Diego) formation and growth. These molecules were said to not with biomolecules such as DNA and amino acids. The field only form the starting point of novel therapeutics, but also of nucleic acid chemistry was also represented in these ses- serve as important biological tools that allow better under- sions. Glenn Burley (Strathclyde University) detailed sever- standing of cancer biology. Another speaker using high- al molecules that regulate RNA splicing, thus enabling his throughput screening to discover molecules that regulate the group to gain insight into the labyrinth of the splicazome, cell cycle was Ulrike Eggert (King’s College London), while Danica Fujimori (University of California, San Fran- whose lab are working to uncover and characterize a series cisco) outlined her groups efforts to unravel the mechanism of molecules that target various proteins and pathways in cy- of two recently discovered RNA and DNA methylating en- tokinesis, for use as a molecular toolbox to allow better un- zymes. derstanding of cell division and cell cycle regulation. It was evident from both these talks that high-throughput screen- Overall the meeting was an excellent symposium that ena- ing approaches continue to play a critical role in chemical bled international and multidisciplinary networking oppor- biology, and the discovery of new bioactive molecules. tunities for the young guns of chemistry in the UK, USA, Germany, and Brazil. Unlike subject-specific meetings, the Several speakers detailed the development and use of new TFOC Symposium exposed its participants to the breadth molecules for labeling proteins in cells. Christian Hacken- and diversity of current chemical research, an approach that berger (Humboldt Universitt Berlin) has taken the use of will hopefully enable new, sustainable transdisciplinary col- click chemistry a step further by introducing Staudinger to laborations. Huisgen; using a linker capable of undergoing a stepwise Staudinger and CuAAC reaction opens the possibility of

Dr. Anastassia N. Alexandrova Dr. Stefan M. Huber Dr. Ali Tavassoli

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