But that doesn't mean that the most general catalyst P7 is a one-trick-pony: different substrates that are desymmetrized by P7 don't necessarily do so via the same activation topology. They might "bind" with different hydrogen bond partners, following specific constraints of that substrate! (4/7)

Two big takeaways: yes, with flexible catalysts, increased preorganization and convergence towards a single activation mode follow the catalyst evolution. And we tracked this effect for almost every point change in the optimization, with atomistic resolution. (3/7)

We were hoping to find a single catalyst that would prove general across ring sizes besides the different mechanistic paradigms - and luckily, we did. But, we were quite surprised when both DFT and X-Ray, counterintuitively, told us we were making the opposite enantiomer of the two ring sizes! [3/3]

...proved effective to synthesize strained medium-sized rings of two different sizes with perfect intramolecular selectivity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first method to synthesize strained, congested seven-membered rings under mild conditions. [2/3]

It is finally out: my long-time obsession with "inherently" chiral medium-sized rings now has a catalytic, enantioselective method. After a number of disconnection attempts, we developed a strategy based on choosing the maximally preorganized disconnection, which [1/3] pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...