MJ Koh Group

Atom swap unlocks a world of 4-membered rings Molecular-editing method trades oxygen for other atoms to diversify fragments on the fly

Another week, another atom swap! This one features adorable--and adorably versatile--oxetanes!
cen.acs.org/synthesis/At...

16.10.2025 20:47 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Atom-swapping blueprint could streamline synthesis of pharmaceutical building blocks Researchers from NUS have pioneered a photocatalytic atom-swapping transformation that converts oxetanes into a variety of four-membered saturated cyclic molecules, which are key scaffolds in medicinal chemistry.

A new photocatalytic atom-swapping method enables efficient conversion of oxetanes into diverse four-membered saturated rings, streamlining access to key pharmaceutical building blocks. doi.org/g96442

16.10.2025 11:49 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

‘Stimulating discovery’ leads to strategy to swap oxygen in saturated rings Skeletal editing pushed beyond aromatic structures, sparking new opportunities in drug discovery

Swapping oxygen in oxetanes? 🪄 Done! With skeletal editing 🙌🏼🦴✨ My latest @chemistryworld.com story covers a cool strategy to introduce nitrogen, carbon, or sulfur instead at a single stroke 🖌️🎨 Amazing, almost magic @nature.com paper by @mjkoh87.bsky.social 👉🏼 www.chemistryworld.com/news/stimula...

16.10.2025 09:12 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Atom-swapping in a saturated heterocycle? We report a photocatalytic transmutation strategy in @nature.com that exchanges O within an oxetane for N, S, C & even dual atoms, affording various non-aromatic cyclic pharmacophores. #skeletalediting #atomswap #photocatalysis www.nature.com/articles/s41...

15.10.2025 15:16 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Iron-catalysed radical difunctionalization of alkenes - Nature Synthesis Three-component, iron-based catalytic transformations offer a promising and sustainable approach to building complex molecules in a single step. This Review highlights advances and ongoing challenges ...

Now online:

Review article by Achyut R. Gogoi, Ángel Rentería-Gómez, Tong-De Tan, Jun Wei Ng, Ming Joo Koh & Osvaldo Gutierrez

Iron-catalysed radical difunctionalization of alkenes

www.nature.com/articles/s44... ($)
#Chemsky

04.09.2025 10:02 — 👍 7    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

Science Fellows

Applications are now open for the Stanford Science Fellows postdoctoral program, opportunity to join an exciting community of scholars!

stanfordsciencefellows.stanford.edu

27.08.2025 22:10 — 👍 45    🔁 27    💬 0    📌 0

Cool to have Todd Hyster from Princeton University with us today at NUS Chemistry in Singapore. Photo credits: Jie Wu, Yu Zhao. #photoenzymatic #catalysis

04.08.2025 12:43 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

It's a privilege to have Marisa Kozlowski from
@pennchemistry.bsky.social with us today at NUS Chemistry in Singapore. Photo credit: Yixin Lu. #organicchemistry #OrgLett

23.06.2025 11:37 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Excited to see our recent difluorocarbene skeletal expansion chemistry being used to make a molecule of the week! Read more about making difluorooxetanes from here: lnkd.in/gad_5fNq
Now available from Enamine: new.enaminestore.com/catalog/EN30...

23.05.2025 15:58 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Site‐Selective Carbonylation of Azetidines via Copper‐Catalyzed Difluorocarbene Insertion γ-Lactams are privileged five-membered pharmaco-phores in numerous bioactive compounds, but access to these motifs typically rely on cycloaddition/substitution chemistry involving activated substrate...

A new skeletal expansion approach to make γ-lactam pharmacophores by Cu-catalyzed difluorocarbene insertion into azetidines. It turns out that some γ-lactam scaffolds are harder to access than azetidines. Just accepted in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

07.04.2025 17:13 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Catalytic difluorocarbene insertion enables access to fluorinated oxetane isosteres - Nature Chemistry Catalytic methods to introduce fluorine into the backbone of small-ring heterocycles are challenging due to the problems of strain-induced ring cleavage and defluorination. Now, a copper catalyst medi...

Our latest work in @naturechemistry.bsky.social using copper catalysis to promote difluorocarbene insertion into epoxides, allowing us to access an interesting but elusive class of α,α-difluoro-oxetane pharmacophores. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

22.02.2025 03:26 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0