Themed collection In Celebration of Andrew D. Hamilton’s Career in Chemistry

An on-line collection of articles celebrating the 60th birthday of Professor Andrew D. Hamilton FRS has been published featuring contributions from students and colleagues past and present.

Since the introduction of organophosphorus (OP) compounds as nerve agents and pesticides, methods of dealing with their toxicity to humans have been intensely researched.

Herein we describe the development of AApeptides as a new class of peptidomimetics that mimic natural antimicrobial peptides.

Highly curved bilayer lipid membranes make up the shell of many intra- and extracellular compartments, including organelles and vesicles. Using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, we show that increasing the density of lipids in the bilayer membrane can induce the membrane to form a curved shape.

The structures of various urea oligomers incorporating one or two central achiral 1,2-diamino-1,1-dimethylethane (DADME) units have been investigated in solution and in the crystalline state.

We report facile preparation of palladacycles as storable arylpalladium(II) reagents from acetanilides via cyclopalladation. The palladacycles exhibited good stability in PBS buffer and were capable of functionalizing a metabolically encoded HPG-containing protein, thus providing a new type of biocompatible organometallic reagent for selectively functionalizing the alkyne-encoded proteins.

We describe here the use of disulfide exchange reactions to generate distinct supramolecular topologies within a dynamic combinatorial library (DCL) derived from tri- and mono-functionalised thiol components in water.

A simple hydroxamate, derived from hydrolysis of ketoclomazone, was found to inhibit Haemophilus influenzae 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase at the low μM range and suppress bacterial growth.

Chalcone/flavanone interconversion occurs facilely under aqueous alkaline conditions making it a promising scaffold for the development of a covalent molecular switch.

A small molecule, protein mimetic based approach is shown to specifically inhibit lipid catalysed self-assembly of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP).

Two structurally similar amphiphilic macrocycles differing in functional groups self-assemble into closed-shell and open-shell vesicles in polar solvents and morph into nanotubes and fibers upon acidification.

Novel tripeptoid gelators are synthesized by a one-pot Ugi reaction from simple starting materials.

Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes were designed to bind to the internal reference sequence and the single base mutation sequence within PCR-amplified DNA templates, and the PNA probes were quantitatively analyzed with MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

A straight-forward computational method is used to redesign protein–protein interfaces of a dimorphic nanocage forcing it to assemble with monomorphism.

Partial and full integration products were observed using AFM in a 2LTR system.

For ratiometric “naked eye” detection of CN⁻, an ESIPT exhibiting benzothiazole receptor (BHI) is designed having one aldehyde group ortho and the other aldehyde para to the OH group respectively.

Water soluble amphiphilic calix[8]arenes form pH-responsive and reversible supramolecular hydrogels; depending on their functionalization, pH variations trigger hydrogelation under basic or acidic conditions.

This communication describes supramolecular hydrogels exhibiting color change in response to glycosidases, which was successfully employed to construct a colorimetric sensor array chip for rapid detection of glycosidases.

The synthesis of small molecule based 1,3,5-trisubstituted benzenes for photo-mediated capture of human carbonic anhydrase II with visualisation by fluorescence is described.

Hydroxylamine reacts with the diester anion DPP⁻ by the expected concerted S_N2(P) mechanism, but with the triester TPP by an addition–elimination process, with breakdown of the phosphorane intermediate rate-determining.

We report the discovery of N-(4-sulfamoylphenyl)thioureas as a new class of T. brucei LeuRS inhibitors.

Unique glycolipids from an extreme thermophile, Thermus thermophilus, were synthesized for the first time, with newly developed glycosylation methods.

An optimized high-yield synthesis of meso-arylsubstituted trans-A₂B₂ di(4-pyridyl)porphyrins and their use as building blocks in the Re(I)-mediated self-assembling of square metallacycles are presented.

Herein we report a direct and efficient method for the synthesis of four new carboxylate-isostere analogs of daptomycin.

Analysis of X-ray crystal structures for families of PN ligands reveal conformational variations that can be linked to trends in catalytic asymmetric synthesis.

Cell-based SAR of an ERK docking domain inhibitor

The introduction of two amidinium groups to the 1,8-position of a spacer unit can control the direction of formation of a self-assembled structure and succeeded in the formation of a four-component assembled structure .

An inherently chiral ABCH-substituted cone-calix[4]arene derivative has been prepared in a one-step process starting from the easily available cone-triformylcalix[4]arene.

We describe potent peptide conjugate inhibitors of the Keap1–Nrf2 protein–protein interaction that have activity in cell based Nrf2 induction assays.

The attachment of molecular rotary motors containing triethoxysilane functional groups to quartz, silicon and mica surfaces is described and the effect of photochemical and thermal isomerization steps on the surface assemblies was studied.

“Supramolecular buttressing” was defined as the alteration, by a neighboring unit, of a substituent effect on intermolecular recognition, and was assessed using Cucurbit[7]uril–guest assemblies.

Transannular iodoamination of substituted 1,2,3,4,7,8-hexahydroazocines facilitates the asymmetric synthesis of polyhydroxylated pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

Resorufin nosylate exhibited naked-eye detectable colorimetric and fluorogenic signaling of fluoride ions in acetonitrile. The interference from sulfide ions was effectively suppressed by using the TPEN–Cu²⁺ complex as a masking agent.

Highly selective chemosignaling behaviors toward hydrazine of a reaction-based probe of dichlorofluorescein and resorufin acetates were investigated. Hydrazinolysis of latent dichlorofluorescein and resorufin acetates revealed prominent chromogenic and fluorogenic signaling.

Here we describe our studies on solvent-dependent enantiodivergent Mannich-type reactions utilizing conformationally flexible guanidine/bisthiourea organocatalyst (S,S)-1.

A ruthenium(II) tris-chelate perturbs the folding landscape of its target protein leading to lowered melting temperatures and accelerated proteolysis.

A novel bis-triazole pyridinium axle containing rotaxane, prepared by a chloride anion templated ring closing metathesis clipping strategy, exhibits selectivity for halide anions over oxoanions with a notable preference for bromide being shown amongst the halides.