Introduction to the themed issue on Biophosphates

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Welcome to this themed issue of NJC entitled Biophosphates. It is a collection of original research articles, as well as reviews, dedicated by their authors to Professor Wojciech J. Stec on the occasion of his 70th birthday. This issue arrives just before the 18th International Conference on Phosphorus Chemistry (ICPC2010), which will be hosted in July 2010 by the Technical University of Wroclaw (Poland). We are grateful to the editorial staff of NJC and RSC Publishing for their great efforts and help in the realization of this issue. We also direct warm words of appreciation to all the authors of the papers (26 submissions from 8 countries), who perfectly understand that high quality publications collected together in a themed issue make a timely gift to a respected scientist. Last but not least, the guest editors warmly thank Professor Fritz Eckstein for his thoughtful and warm introduction, painting a rich portrait of a man who, in the words of the great Polish writer and Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz, might be called vir incomparabilis.

Plate1 Professor Wojciech J. Stec and his co-workers at the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences in Lodz. Professor Stec is in the front row at the left-hand end, with Professor Barbara Nawrot to his left. The photo was taken in November 2009.

The term biophosphates covers a huge scientific area, but the following main topics can be identified in this issue: the chemical synthesis and mechanistic studies of nucleotides and oligonucleotides, synthetic analogs of nucleic acids with novel functionalities, inhibitors of enzymes associated with cancer, gene expression inhibitors, models for structural studies, and nucleic acid analogs as tools for the investigation of metabolic processes and potential therapeutics.

We believe that this themed issue will be of interest to the numerous research establishments involved in research at the interface between chemistry and biology, and will also be appreciated by Professor Stec. His long journey from the study of the mechanism and stereochemistry of nucleophilic substitution at phosphorus to the chirotechnology of P-modified oligonucleotides has paved the way to a new vista of translational medicine.

So, please join us in sending very happy birthday wishes to Professor Stec, and a happy and successful ICPC2010 to all of its participants and guests.

Barbara Nawrot and Jean-Pierre Majoral

(Guest Editors)

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