Carbon-carbon bond cleavage remains a frequently difficult synthetic task, yet nature is built upon the making and breaking of carbon-carbon bonds through enzyme-catalyzed reactions. One example, 2,4’-dihydroxyacetophenone dioxygenase (DAD), catalyzes the oxidative cleavage of the α-hydroxyketone side-chain of 2,4’-dihydroxyacetophenone (DHAP). While this enzyme has only been cursorily investigated, the DAD reaction bears notable similarity to the cleavage performed by the better understood, acireductone dioxygenase (ARD’).

Throughout history carbon monoxide (CO) has been thought of as a toxic gas.¹ However, over the past 60 years CO was found to be endogenous with distinct physiological functions and a large therapeutic potential.^{2, 3 4} As a therapeutic, CO modulates the immune system, exerts redox control in the mitochondria, acts as a cytoprotective, and is a vasodilator.

Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical technique, but one of the biggest challenges is in differentiating stereoisomers. Techniques such as NMR and X-ray are good at this, but they typically require pure samples and significantly greater amounts of material than mass spectrometry. We have developed a simple mass spectrometry method that can differentiate pentoses and hexoses, and determine the linkage position and anomericity of disaccharides at nanomolar concentrations in complex mixtures.

Transition state theory is chemistry’s most important quantitative method for the calculation of rates and qualitative framework for the understanding of rates. Some flaws and limitations of transition state theory were apparent at its beginning, while others have become apparent in recent years from a growing number of reactions found to exhibit “dynamic effects,” that is, experimental kinetic observations that cannot be predicted or understood from statistical rate theories.

Hydrogen sulfide is one of three important gaseous transmitter molecules in mammalian biology. The presence and absence of gasotransmitters have been linked to various processes and disfunctions in the body, from vasodilation to Alzheimer's disease in hydrogen sulfide's case. As a result, there is a substantial push in research to make gasotransmitter-donating systems for biomedical applications.

Nanoscale polymeric particles, in particular self-assembled block copolymer micelles, have been utilized in pharmaceutics for development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic modalities. Advantages of the polymeric micelles include their small size, long circulation in bloodstream, ability to circumvent renal excretion and extravasation at sites of enhanced vascular permeability. They can be designed to facilitate the incorporation of a variety of compounds or even particles through a combination of electrostatic, hydrophobic, and hydrogen bonding interactions.