Abstract:The discovery of novel chemical reactions or reaction sequences that are able to generate useful chemical products may be regarded as the heart of organic chemistry. We present here concepts and methods on how to find and explore new multi component reactions, especially with automated combinatorial methods. This "combinatorial reaction finding" provides also a powerful tool to the understanding of the rules of organic chemistry, especially structure-reactivity relationships.

High-resolution crystal structures of Staphylococcus aureus methionine aminopeptidase I in complex with various keto heterocycles and aminoketones were determined, and the intermolecular ligand interactions with the enzyme are reported. The compounds are effective inhibitors of the S. aureus enzyme because of the formation of an uncleavable tetrahedral intermediate upon binding. The electron densities unequivocally show the enzyme-catalyzed transition-state analogue mimicking that for amide bond hydrolysis of substrates.

No abstract

Chem. 2002, 67, 3637-3642) suggested that structures attributed by us to 4a, 4d, 7a, and 7d are incorrect. Our own re-investigation led us to conclude that compounds 4a, 4d, 7a, and 7d have aza-bicyclo[3.2.2]nonane structures as depicted in the accompanying graphic. These revised structures have been confirmed by NMR and X-ray analysis.

No abstract