Click chemistry

Click chemistry is a concept introduced by K. Barry Sharpless in 2001 and describes chemistry tailored to generate substances quickly and reliably by joining small repeating units together as nature does. In biochemistry, after all, proteins are made from repeating amino acid units and sugars are made from repeating monosaccharide units. The connecting units are based on carbon - hetero atom bonds C-X-O rather than carbon - carbon bonds. In addition, enzymes ensure that chemical processes can overcome large enthalpy hurdles by division into a series of reactions each with a small energy step. Mimicking nature in organic synthesis of new pharmaceuticals is essential given the large number of possible structures.

References

• Click Chemistry: Diverse Chemical Function from a Few Good Reactions Hartmuth C. Kolb, M. G. Finn, K. Barry Sharpless Angewandte Chemie International Edition Volume 40, 2001, P. 2004 abstract
• W.C. Guida et al. Med. Res. Rev. p 3 1996