Small molecules have critical roles at all levels of biological complexity and yet remain orphans of the central dogma. Chemical biologists, working with small molecules, expand our understanding of these central elements of life.

A study in this issue of Cell illustrates the power of applying genomic approaches with model systems to characterize the biological activity of small molecules and to identify their cellular targets, which can clarify the mode of action of human therapeutics.

We have provided a small molecule-assisted heterogeneous nucleation of MOF route to successfully synthesize Au@UiO-66(NH2) heterostructures. UiO-66(NH2) with a localized electronic state that was characterized by C-AFM exhibited higher photocatalytic activity in the heterostructures via a plasmonic sensitization process.