Nitrogen radical chemistry sees the light
Daniele Leonori explains how his group is taking inspiration from 30-year-old chemistry to devise shorter syntheses for bioactive compounds
Look at the structures of the top-selling drugs and you’d be hard pushed to find one without a carbon–nitrogen bond. They’re tricky bonds to make and chemists normally generate them by using nitrogen compounds as nucleophiles. Daniele Leonori, however, has a more radical strategy. Literally.