New chemical tool may improve development of key drug components

July 18, 2025

New chemical tool may improve development of key drug components

flasks full of colorful liquids arranged in a stripe pattern

Chemists have developed a novel way to generate a variety of highly useful chemical building blocks by harnessing metal carbenes, suggests new research.  

Typically used in chemical reactions essential for drug synthesis and materials development, carbenes are short-lived, highly reactive carbon atoms. In the lab, this can make carbenes especially tricky to create, as methods to form them are limited and often hazardous.