Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Science

The venerable Minisci reaction allows for direct access to functionalized heterocycles. This process has lately seen an interesting renaissance and is discussed in this volume. Addition of heteroatom-centered radicals onto unsaturated systems constitutes another powerful method to construct heterocycles. Examples of such a strategy are proposed along with the formation of various heterocycles relying on homolytic substitution at sulfur, phosphorus and selenium. Additionally free-radical functionalization of reactive functional groups including isonitriles, isothiocyanates and related unsaturated systems which offer a straightforward route towards useful aromatic and non-aromatic heterocycles are discussed.

NMR techniques although well established for structural analyses of proteins and nucleic acids, cannot be simply applied to this complex class of biomolecules. Nonetheless, recently developed NMR techniques for carbohydrates open the door to conformational studies of a variety of sugar chains of biological interest. NMR studies on glycans will have significant impact on the development of vaccines, adjuvants, therapeutics, biomarkers and on biomass regeneration.