Synform Issue 2022/1

Abstract

I am delighted to introduce a new year of SYNFORM with an absolutely first-class January issue, packed full of great science, published in top-notch journals. If a good beginning bodes well, it is safe to say that we have a very exciting year ahead. The critical duty of kicking off this season is on the shoulders of Y. Nagata (Japan) who is the protagonist -and past Thieme Chem istry Journals Awardee -of our Young Career Focus interview, which zooms in on robot-assisted synthesis and stereochemical properties of polymers in solution. The first Literature Coverage article covers a recent ground-breaking publication in Science by the group of R. Sarpong (USA) on a photo-mediated ring contraction of saturated heterocycles, such as piperid ines, cyclic ethers and thioethers, which allows for the skeletal editing of complex cyclic organic molecules. The next Literature Coverage article covers another recent Science paper, authored by the group of W. Han (P. R. of China), on a conceptually new approach to the notoriously challenging selective oxidation of phenols, which has been achieved via iron-catalysed non-directed arene C-H hydroxylation, enabled by L-cystinederived ligands inspired by cytochrome P450 enzymes. The fourth and final article of this pyrotechnic issue covers a new approach -developed through a collaboration involving the groups of M. Bradley (UK) and J. Geng (P. R. of China), and published in Nat. Chem.for activating prodrugs using radiotherapy, and specifically X-rays, which holds great promise for future clinical applications.