Coined by 2022 Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, bioorthogonal chemistry encompasses a class of click reactions that are both fast and biologically inert, making them particularly useful in precision medicine.
Scientists leverage click reactions in precision medicine to connect therapeutic agents with targeting molecules. In an interview with The Scientist, Bertozzi discussed how targeted degradation is a common thread that connects current bioorthogonal chemistry approaches to up-and-coming drug delivery strategies, such as proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs), lysosome-targeting chimeras (LYTACs), and the sialidases and mucinases recently created by Bertozzi’s research team for anticancer applications.
Read the Brush Up Summary to learn more about click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.