In mathematics, orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of perpendicularity. Whereas perpendicular is typically followed by to when relating two lines to one another, orthogonal is commonly used without to.
Karl Barry Sharpless is an American stereochemist. He is a two-time Nobel laureate in Chemistry known for his work on stereoselective reactions and click chemistry.
Click chemistry is an approach to chemical synthesis that emphasizes efficiency, simplicity, selectivity, and modularity in chemical processes used to join molecular building blocks. It includes both the development and use of "click reactions", a set of simple, biocompatible chemical reactions that meet specific criteria like high yield, fast reaction rates, and minimal byproducts. It was first fully described by Sharpless, Hartmuth C. Kolb, and M. G. Finn of The Scripps Research Institute in 2001. In this seminal paper, Sharpless argued that synthetic chemistry could emulate the way nature constructs complex molecules, using efficient reactions to join together simple, non-toxic building blocks.
In chemical biology, bioorthogonal chemical reporter is a non-native chemical functionality that is introduced into the naturally occurring biomolecules of a living system, generally through metabolic or protein engineering. These functional groups are subsequently utilized for tagging and visualizing biomolecules. Jennifer Prescher and Carolyn R. Bertozzi, the developers of bioorthogonal chemistry, defined bioorthogonal chemical reporters as "non-native, non-perturbing chemical handles that can be modified in living systems through highly selective reactions with exogenously delivered probes." It has been used to enrich proteins and to conduct proteomic analysis.
A triazole is a heterocyclic compound featuring a five-membered ring of two carbon atoms and three nitrogen atoms with molecular formula C2H3N3. Triazoles exhibit substantial isomerism, depending on the positioning of the nitrogen atoms within the ring.
Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they affect diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Bertozzi is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Bioconjugation is a chemical strategy to form a stable covalent link between two molecules, at least one of which is a biomolecule.
Lara K. Mahal is an American chemist who is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Glycomics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is also a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. She is notable both for her pioneering work establishing lectin microarrays as a new technology for glycomics, her work on miRNA regulation of glycosylation and her graduate work with Carolyn R. Bertozzi on unnatural carbohydrate incorporation. Work in her laboratory focuses on understanding the role of carbohydrates in human health using systems- and chemical biology-based approaches
Morten Peter Meldal is a Danish chemist and Nobel laureate. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is best known for developing the CuAAC-click reaction, concurrently with but independent of Valery V. Fokin and K. Barry Sharpless.
The term bioorthogonal chemistry refers to any chemical reaction that can occur inside of living systems without interfering with native biochemical processes. The term was coined by Carolyn R. Bertozzi in 2003. Since its introduction, the concept of the bioorthogonal reaction has enabled the study of biomolecules such as glycans, proteins, and lipids in real time in living systems without cellular toxicity. A number of chemical ligation strategies have been developed that fulfill the requirements of bioorthogonality, including the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between azides and cyclooctynes, between nitrones and cyclooctynes, oxime/hydrazone formation from aldehydes and ketones, the tetrazine ligation, the isocyanide-based click reaction, and most recently, the quadricyclane ligation.
Copper-free click chemistry is a bioorthogonal reaction as a variant of an azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition. By eliminating cytotoxic copper catalysts, the reaction proceeds without live-cell toxicity. It was developed as a faster alternative to the Staudinger ligation with the first generation of Cu-free click chemistry, producing rate constants over 63 times faster.
An aldehyde tag is a short peptide tag that can be further modified to add fluorophores, glycans, PEG chains, or reactive groups for further synthesis. A short, genetically-encoded peptide with a consensus sequence LCxPxR is introduced into fusion proteins, and by subsequent treatment with the formylglycine-generating enzyme (FGE), the cysteine of the tag is converted to a reactive aldehyde group. This electrophilic group can be targeted by an array of aldehyde-specific reagents, such as aminooxy- or hydrazide-functionalized compounds.
This is a list of women chemists. It should include those who have been important to the development or practice of chemistry. Their research or application has made significant contributions in the area of basic or applied chemistry.
Suzanne A. Blum is an American professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Blum works on mechanistic chemistry, most recently focusing on borylation reactions and the development of single-molecule and single-particle fluorescence microscopy to study organic chemistry and catalysis. She received the American Chemical Society's Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in 2023.
Lisa Ann Marcaurelle is an American chemist and a senior executive in multiple biotechnology companies.
Kristi Lynn Kiick is the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware. She studies polymers, biomaterials and hydrogels for drug delivery and regenerative medicine. She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and of the National Academy of Inventors. She served for nearly eight years as the deputy dean of the college of engineering at the University of Delaware.
Ellen Sletten is an American chemist who is the John McTague Career Development Chair at University of California, Los Angeles. Her research considers the use of physical organic chemistry for diagnostics and medical therapies.
Cristina Nevado is a Spanish chemist who is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Zurich. Her research considers chemical synthesis and organometallic reactions. She received the 2021 Margaret Faul Women in Chemistry Award.
Neal K. Devaraj is an American chemist and professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His research interests include artificial cells, lipid membranes, and bioconjugation.
Robert J. Gilliard, Jr. is an American chemist and researcher who is the Novartis Associate Professor of Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research involves the synthesis of molecules for energy storage, molecular materials, and main-group element mediated bond activation. He is a member of the editorial advisory board at Inorganic Chemistry, Chemical Communications, and Angewandte Chemie, among other scientific journals.
