A P450 monooxygenase from Nocardia farcinica (CYP154A8) catalyses the stereo- and regioselective hydroxylation of n-alkanes, still a challenging task in chemical catalysis. In a biphasic reaction system, the regioselectivity for the C2-position of C7-C9 alkanes was over 90%. The enzyme showed strict S-selectivity for all tested substrates, with enantiomeric excess (ee) of up to 91%.

Lithium-oxygen battery development is hampered by degradation reactions initiated by superoxide, which is formed in the pathway of oxygen reduction to peroxide. This work demonstrates that the superoxide lifetime is drastically decreased upon addition of ethyl viologen, which catalyses the reduction of superoxide to peroxide.

The mechanism of action of artemisinin appears to involve two steps. In the first step, activation, intra-parasitic iron catalyses the cleavage of the endoperoxide bridge and the generation of free radicals. In the second step, alkylation, the artemisinin-derived free radical forms covalent bonds with parasite proteins.

The enzyme Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDH) catalyses the decomposition of glucose. The gene that produces the GAPDH is therefore present in a wide class of organisms. We show that for this gene the average value of the fluctuations in nucleotide distribution in the codons, normalized to strand bias, provides a reasonable measure of how the gene has evolved in time.

Air- and moisture-stable Cu(OTf)(2)-bipy catalyses the addition of phenols to 1,3-dienes under aerobic conditions in a tandem hydroalkoxylation-rearrangement-hydroalkylation sequence, furnishing O-heterocycles in moderate to good yields, and can be recycled without any loss in catalytic activity.