Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Click chemistry connections for functional discovery

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Synthesis

View current issue Submit your manuscript

The organizing principles of click chemistry help scientists make molecules for a variety of applications. Such democratization of synthesis is challenging and rewarding, as useful simplicity is difficult to achieve. We reflect on this and look forward, hoping to continue to tie the joy of functional discovery to the challenges of synthetic chemistry.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1: Triazole and sulfur(VI) connectors emblematic of click chemistry.

References

  1. Kolb, H. C., Finn, M. G. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 40, 2004–2021 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hoyle, C. E. & Bowman, C. N. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 49, 1540–1573 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kade, M. J., Burke, D. J. & Hawker, C. J. J. Polym. Sci. A1 48, 743–750 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rostovtsev, V. V., Green, L. G., Fokin, V. V. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 41, 2596–2599 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Manetsch, R. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 12809–12818 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Narayan, S. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 3275–3279 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Dong, J., Krasnova, L., Finn, M. G. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 9430–9448 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Li, S. et al. Nat. Chem. 13, 858–867 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Jang, K.-J. et al. Nanomaterials 11, 318 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Meng, G. et al. Nature 574, 86–91 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Horne, W. S., Yadav, M. K., Stout, C. D. & Ghadiri, M. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 15356–15367 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Valverde, I. E. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 8957–8960 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Kukwikila, M., Gale, N., El-Sagheer, A. H., Brown, T. & Tavassoli, A. Nat. Chem. 9, 1089–1098 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Li, S. H., Wu, P., Moses, J. E. & Sharpless, K. B. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 56, 2903–2908 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Kislukhin, A. A., Higginson, C. J., Hong, V. P. & Finn, M. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 134, 6491–6497 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Shieh, P., Hill, M. R., Zhang, W., Kristufek, S. L. & Johnson, J. A. Chem. Rev. 121, 7059–7121 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Wang, Q. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 3192–3193 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Kolb, H. C. & Sharpless, K. B. Drug Discov. Today 8, 1128–1137 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Mocharla, V. P. et al. ChemMedChem 8, 43–48 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Zheng, Q. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 18808–18814 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Agnew, H. D. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48, 4944–4948 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We dedicate this article to the late Richard A. Lerner, who made click chemistry possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    M. G. Finn

  2. Neuroscience Biomarkers and Janssen R&D Global Imaging, Johnson & Johnson, San Diego, CA, USA

    Hartmuth C. Kolb

  3. Department of Chemistry, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA

    K. Barry Sharpless

Authors
  1. M. G. Finn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hartmuth C. Kolb
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. Barry Sharpless
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. Barry Sharpless.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Finn, M.G., Kolb, H.C. & Sharpless, K.B. Click chemistry connections for functional discovery. Nat Synth 1, 8–10 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-021-00017-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-021-00017-w

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation