Themed collection 2023 RSC Chemical Biology Emerging Investigators

This article profiles the early career researchers whose work features in the RSC Chemical Biology Emerging Investigators Collection 2023.

We combine E1/E2-mediated ubiquitin chain extension and sortase compatible ubiquitin to demonstrate a method for robust generation of discrete polyubiquitin chains and use sortase-mediated ligation to conjugate them to proteins site-specifically.

The Riboglow platform has a small molecule fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) sensor. Distinct cellular environments, like two different cell lines, lead to quantifiable FLIM differences.

BrainBikes, a new family of bicyclic brain shuttle peptides, can efficiently transport protein therapeutics across brain endothelium.

8-Azido-3,8-dideoxy-α/β-D-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid (Kdo-8-N₃) is a Kdo derivative used in metabolic labeling of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) structures of Escherichia coli strains with varying efficiencies.

Direction conjugation of a BODIPY fluorophore with the chelating ruthenium ligand result in red-shifted ethylene probes Con-BEP-4 and Con-BEP-5. Synthesis, photophysical properties, and live cell imaging studies are reported.

Supramolecular capsules assembled from amphiphilic dendrons based on naphthyl and benzyl ethers exhibit chaperone-like activity by reducing the extent of fibrillation of an amyloid beta protein fragment.

The first biosynthetic characterization of a lumazine-containing nonribosomal peptide and the biochemical investigation of the respective adenylation domains is described.

The progesterone receptor is activated by ligands utilizing both ancestral and modern mechanisms.

In this work different methods stemming from mRNA display were investigated toward developing potent binding cyclic peptides with distinct selectivity profiles against targets of a related protein family.

Since fluorinated compounds are vital in medicinal chemistry, incorporating fluorine into natural products is attracting interest. We enable incorporation of 4-fluoro-Phe into the nonribosomal peptide gramicidin S with a surgical mutation.

Click’n lock describes a reaction system capable of switching on-demand from reversible to irreversible click reactions and is based on the chemoselective tetrazine–thiol exchange. Here, click’n lock is applied for dynamic modifications of peptides.

Mitochondria-targeted chemiluminescent probe MCH enables visualization of hydrogen sulfide activity in cancer cells, human serum, and animal models.

Four new mRNA modifications were detected in S. cerevisiae by integrating an improved LC-MS/MS approach with an enhanced mRNA purification and validation process. Codons containing these modifications were further identified to impede translation.