FDA Approval of the Month – January Copper histidinate is now the first FDA-approved treatment for Menkes disease. A major milestone for a devastating X-linked disorder, showing how early, biology-driven intervention can meaningfully improve outcomes for patients and families.

excuse me do you have a moment to talk about ball

as more and more synthetic drugs resemble natural products in their properties, this is a timely overview of natural products in the last 20 years of medicine. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Let's start the year off right with an exciting paper post! In this @chemcomm.rsc.org paper, the groups of @meganwright.bsky.social and Stuart Warriner investigate the metal-independent labeling of proteins using isocyanides. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/artic... ##ChemBio #ChemSky #CovalentInhibitors

Bad antibodies are such a huge problem. It’s not just the money wasted on buying them. It’s the amount of time spent trying to validate them.

Ok here it is - out of 44 FDA approvals this year, 31 are small molecules (70%), 26 of those are oral drugs (84%), 22 of them are chiral (71%). This is the largest number and percentage of chiral FDA approved molecules in a single year. Fitusiran is not a small molecule, bonus.

Cantharidin was approved by the FDA in 2023 but its medicinal use goes back thousands of years. In 1927 Diels and Alder attempted to make the natural product using their namesake 4+2 cycloaddition but with no luck. Since then, a who's who list of chemists have tackled the compound. Read about more!

What if one molecule could do all of this? • Boost CAR-T cytotoxicity • ↑ CD8⁺ T-cell tumor infiltration, ↓ Tregs • Potentiate checkpoint blockade • Suppress DNA repair • Induce alternative splicing & neoantigen presentation • Inhibit P-gp drug efflux LB-100 is in clinical trials - read more!

Klebanoff and Walz publish another TCR structure which explains how TCR binding to p/HLA triggers intracellular signaling. CryoEM in native environment reveals a 'jack-in-the-box' mechanism - super super cool www.nature.com/articles/s41...

holy wow - what school is this

A tall glass of water outside of old main

William Withering popularized the use of foxglove which ultimately led to today's FDA approved cardiac glycoside digoxin. His degrees are listed as "MD, FRS, etc. etc." 😂

Well shoot. Mice shouldnt get tattoos then.

1. This is really cool, great idea 2. Who came up with these reaction choices, my sophomore organic text? #chemchat www.organicdivision.org/2025-organic...

Actually I'd love to get a count on here of who's actually done particular reactions. I bet there are loads of odd ones chemsky has drawn on when needed

Has anyone here ever, even once, done a Wulff-Kishner reaction? #chemchat

What Do Oral Drugs Really Look Like? Dose Regimen, Pharmacokinetics, and Safety of Recently Approved Small-Molecule Oral Drugs

The @ragoninstitute.bsky.social is launching a new faculty search for a computational immunologist! Applications are open now and reviewed on a rolling basis. Please share broadly with your networks! #immunosky www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Just mapped out all 2025 FDA small-molecule approvals — and the trends are striking. Oncology dominates again, but a few companies really stood out: • Bayer: 2 approvals • Boehringer Ingelheim: 2 • Novartis: 2 • Sanofi: 2 (Poster below 👇) #FDA #DrugDiscovery #Biotech #Oncology

I started making a poster for my Med Chem undergrads because I want them to be able to immediately identify common drug classes by structure. Which others would you add to these?

This is Bloodlines Kaos Hemingway. His mom was named Dry Springs Rumors of a Rebellion. Good names make good dogs.

You can already buy this OTC on amazon.

Novo Nordisk’s recent clinical setback with GLP-1s in Alzheimer’s highlights a broader truth: metabolic peptides aren’t automatically neurotherapeutics. The next real opportunity lies in brain-penetrant, neuroprotective, glycosylated PACAP-derived peptides. www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22...

quite interesting indeed. GLP-1s are everywhere and ketohexokinase inhibitors might treat alcoholism.

How old are you??? just kidding. reposting for visibility.

Fun fact: perfluorhexyloctane is approved by the FDA as an ophthalmic solution to treat symptoms of dry eye disease. Solubility = 0 Half-life = forever

2025 FDA approvals (as of Dec 1): 38 novel drugs • 28 small molecules (74%) 67% of those are chiral — highest % in FDA history (1951–2025) After years of biologics rising, 2025 is the year of the comeback for single-enantiomer drugs. #FDAApprovals #Chirality #DrugDiscovery

‘They don’t have symptoms’: CAR-T therapies send autoimmune diseases into remission Engineered T cells that have been used to treat ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus show promising results @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The 2026 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List has 330 tenure-track positions and 47 teaching-only positions: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... #facultychemjobs #chemsky #chemchat ⚗️🧪

The chemical information encoded by a molecule influences parameters like solubility, bioavailability, and even off target effects. Since the 1950s, the information density of drugs has increased. Over the next few weeks we will dive into these trends.

The chemotypes within FDA approvals so far this year are quite diverse. Most of the 2025 small molecule approvals are chiral with four covalent electrophiles.

Wow 28/38 of the drugs approved so far this year are small molecules (30 small molecule structures including combinations). Lots of covalent drugs, too. Very exciting.

a must read

#cheminsults #chemchat

whoa

A few py2Dmol updates 🧬 py2dmol.solab.org Integration with AlphaFoldDB (will auto fetch results). Drag and drop results from AF3-server or ColabFold for interactive experience! (1/4)

this speaks to my soul

week holiday sales huh?

handsome

keep an eye on your brother

Generic drug manufacturing is going to be difficult to (re)establish in the US:

🤦

handsome boy

teaching med chem today

i love this - silicon for sp3 and boron for sp2 all the way

First author Valentin Bruttel has responded over at X. Here's my quick take: a) Mutation rates are irrelevant; I show there aren't any mutations at all, so this part of Bruttel et al, which is also nonsense, is irrelevant. b–e) Four things that are irrelevant to analysis in his paper.

let's go

Interesting piece in The Lancet www.thelancet.com/action/showP...