Metals are ubiquitous and play a critical role in neurobiology. Transition metals are important because they alter the redox state of the physical environment. Biologically, transition metals catalyze redox reactions that are critical to cellular respiration, chemical detoxification, metabolism, and even neurotransmitter synthesis. Many metals are both nutrients and neurotoxicants, such as iron...

Additional capacity delivered by oxygen redox activity may in principle represent a means of enhancing the electrochemical performance layered sodium transition metal oxides. However, irreversible structural changes occurring during cycling typically cause significant fade with limited reversibility processes. Here, P3-structure Na0.67Co0.2Mn0.8O2 was synthesised under two different reaction co...

Transition metals are a group of elements widespread in aquatic environments that can be hazardous when concentrations exceeding threshold values. Due to insufficient data, criteria maximum concentrations (CMCs) of only seven transition metals for protecting aquatic life have been recommended by the USEPA. Hence, it is deemed necessary to develop empirical models for predicting the threshold va...

The 2H-to-1T' phase transition in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been exploited to phase-engineer TMDs for applications in which the metallicity of the 1T' phase is beneficial. However, phase-engineered 1T'-TMDs are metastable; thus, stabilization of the 1T' phase remains an important challenge to overcome before its properties can be exploited. Herein, we performed a systematic st...

Transition metals have an important place within medicinal inorganic chemistry. Transition metals exhibit different oxidation states and can interact with a number of negatively charged molecules. This activity of transition metals led to the recent development of drugs which are based on metals and are considered to be potential candidates for pharmacological and therapeutic applications. This...

The key interactions responsible for the unique reactivity of (-)-sparteine-PdX(2) complexes (X = chloride, acetate) in the enantioselective oxidation of secondary alcohols have been elucidated using quantum mechanics (B3LYP DFT with the PBF polarizable continuum solvent model). From examining many possible pathways, we find the mechanism involves: (1) substitution of the alcohol in place of an...

Transition metals are essential for health, forming integral components of proteins involved in all aspects of biological function. However, in excess these metals are potentially toxic, and to maintain metal homeostasis organisms must tightly coordinate metal acquisition and excretion. The diet is the main source for essential metals, but in aquatic organisms an alternative uptake route is ava...

Transition metal toxicity is an important factor in the pathogenesis of numerous human disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases. Lysosomes have emerged as important factors in transition metal toxicity because they handle transition metals via endocytosis, autophagy, absorption from the cytoplasm and exocytosis. Transcription factor EB (TFEB) regulates lysosomal biogenesis and the expres...

Reactions proceeding through cationic intermediates that lack a Lewis or Brønsted basic site present a challenge for traditional asymmetric catalysis based on chiral metals or organocatalysts. We present an enantioselective ring opening of tetrasubstituted meso-aziridinium ions with alcohol nucleophiles proceeding through a chiral ion pair with a binaphthol-phosphate anion. The reaction is init...

More recently medical chemistry research has been focused on proteins that drive and controlcell cycle progression. Among them, the cyclin dependent kinases (cdk’s) are a group ofserine/threonine kinases, which rule the transition between successive stages of the cell cycle. Theactivity of cdk’s is regulated by multiple mechanisms, including binding to cyclins, which is a broadclass of positive...