Themed collection 2025 ChemSci Pick of the Week Collection

The energy gaps between “forbidden” and “allowed” mechanisms of routine electrocyclic reactions can be negligibly small.

We discovered a fully synthetic non-degradative molecular glue for the ternary complex between FKBP12 and the FRB domain of mTOR by screening a library of FKBP12 ligands. Solving the ternary complex structure allowed significant potency enhancement.

The fabrication of environmentally ion-dissociable high-performance supramolecular polyelectrolyte plastics with a synergistic multivalent and hydrophobic counterion strategy.

Life's homochirality may have emerged from mutual antagonism. As a synthetic model, chiral molecular clips form mirror-image dimers with a record-high 180-fold selectivity, effectively amplifying and transmitting asymmetry.

Precise endo-functionalization tailors the host cavity to fit the shape and charge distribution of target guest molecules, offering a novel bottom-up strategy for constructing customized molecular receptors.

This work reports an efficient strategy to tailor the stacking mode in 2D vinylene-linked covalent triazine frameworks by regulating the base-catalyst with different alkali-metal ions.

High-level quantum chemical calculations for closely stacked π-dimers of antiaromatic molecules have revealed that the appearance of the double-triplet [¹(T₁T₁)] character is critical to connecting the stacked-ring aromaticity with Baird's rule.