The development of new reactions and catalysts for the oxidative cross-coupling of C-H bonds with C-H, N-H and O-H bonds will be discussed. Strategically, these reactions allow for the synthesis of complex molecules from their constituent components, minimizing the need for functional group activation and manipulation. Specifically, rhodium and iridium catalysts for oxidative allylic C-H functionalization of terminal, di- and trisubstituted olefins will be presented.

Aromatic and semi-aromatic polyesters are valuable commodity plastics. Accounting for roughly 10% of the global plastic economy, they boast easy processability and robust thermal and mechanical properties.^1,2 However, aromatic monomers used for the synthesis of these polyesters are derived almost exclusively from petroleum feedstocks.^3,4 While many aliphatic polyesters derived from biosources have seen commercial success in recent years, examples of biobased aromatic monomers are less common.

Despite formaldehyde being a known carcinogen, it is frequently used in cosmetic products as a preservative due to its antimicrobial properties. The FDA lists formaldehyde (FA) and formaldehyde releasers (FR) as common allergens in cosmetic products. According to the European Union, up to 2000 ppm of formaldehyde is permitted in cosmetics but quantifying free formaldehyde from formaldehyde releasers in cosmetics can be challenging.² Formaldehyde releasers work by releasing formaldehyde over time through hydrolysis reactions.

Metabolomics is the study of the collective small molecules within a biological system (cell, tissue or whole organism). The study of these small molecules (metabolites) gives a close measure of the phenotype, giving insight into an organism’s physiological and biochemical state at the time of sample collection. Thus, metabolomics has emerged as a highly attractive field employed to study normal physiology and changes in physiology due to natural diversity, genetic mutations, and disease state(s).

Materials all around us can be classified as either elastic, viscous, or viscoelastic. One can determine where a material falls within the viscosity spectrum based on its rheological properties.

Traditional tandem mass spectrometry, an analytical technique that isolates a precursor ion then fragments it to obtain structural information, is a method extensively used in analytical chemistry. Coupling different separation methods, like LC and GC, can help study complex mixtures that may be difficult with MS/MS alone. However, the isolation step requires a sufficient signal threshold of the precursors, preventing low signal ions that may hold important structural information from being fragmented.

Glycosylation is a common post translational modification of proteins which adds a complex carbohydrate moiety to one or more sites of the protein. These modifications are found in a large proportion of human proteins and play important roles in organ development, cancer growth, and viral infection mechanisms. Despite their biomedical relevance, methods understanding molecular basis for glycoprotein functions is often hampered by the heterogeneity of the attached glycans.

Biotherapeutic drugs present new analytical challenges to the drug development and quality control process. Unlike traditional small molecule drugs where synthetic choices can be tightly controlled, biotherapeutic drugs rely on the integrity of host cell biosynthetic machinery to manufacture the drug. The host cells themselves also present an issue where the biotherapeutic product can be contaminated with trace amounts of host cell proteins (HCPs).

For complex molecular systems, computational methods can provide fine details that are not readily available from experimental methods. However, some insight can only come from thorough exploration of the potential energy surface (PES) for a molecular system. Exhaustive PES exploration using quantum mechanical methods is very time- and resource-consuming.