Proteins carry out the most difficult tasks in living cells. They do so by interacting specifically with other molecules. This requires that they fold to a unique, globular conformation that is only marginally more stable than the large ensemble of unfolded states. The folded state is stabilized mainly by the burial and tight packing of over 80% of the peptide groups and non-polar side chains. If life as we know it is to exist in a solvent other than water, the folded state must be stable and soluble in the new solvent. Our analysis suggests that proteins will be unstable in most polar solvents such as ethanol, extremely stable in non-polar solvents such as cyclohexane, and even more stable in a vacuum. Our solubility studies suggest that protein solubility will be markedly lower in polar solvents such as ethanol and that proteins will be essentially insoluble in non-polar solvents such as cyclohexane. For these and other reasons it seems unlikely that the life we know could exist in any solvent system other than water.

The scope of aryl radical additions to the nitrogen of azomethines is described. Aryl, trifluoromethyl alkyl, and alpha,beta-unsaturated ketimines engage in regioselective aryl-nitrogen bond formation via 5-exo cyclizations of an aryl radical to azomethine nitrogen. Selectivity for carbon-nitrogen over carbon-carbon bond formation is generally high (>95:5) and competes only with direct aryl radical reduction by stannane (0-10%). Alpha-ketoimines are a promising new class of carbon radical acceptors for which no competitive aryl radical reduction is observed. The reaction conditions are pH-neutral and are therefore among the mildest methods available for amination of an aromatic ring. The ketimines examined did not suffer from competitive reduction by stannane, offering an advantage over the use of diazo and azide functional groups as nitrogen sources for carbon radicals. The free radical-mediated aryl amination was sequenced with the O'Donnell phase transfer-catalyzed enantioselective alkylation strategy of glycinyl imine to provide either enantiomer of indoline alpha-amino acids with high ee. These new constrained phenyl alanine derivatives are now readily available for evaluation across a variety of applications.

An efficient improved procedure for the synthesis of beta-acetamido carbonyl compounds is developed by a cobalt(II) chloride-catalyzed three-component coupling protocol. The procedure is also amenable to the synthesis of gamma-lactams by a three-component coupling reaction with use of 2-carbomethoxybenzaldehyde. The beta-acetamido carbonyl compounds derived from 2-carbomethoxybenzaldehyde are useful intermediates as they can be transformed to the corresponding gamma-lactams on treatment with base.