Infection by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the most serious threats to patients in health care settings and may also occur in healthy individuals.  Diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) is an emerging approach that allows efficient, simultaneous synthesis of an array of structurally diverse and complex small molecules for a variety of drug targets. With this approach, this study reported synthesis of 242 natural product-like and drug-like small compounds, and identified a new structural class of antibiotics, represented by gemmacin, with anti-MRSA activity.  

Alzheimers disease (AD) is associated with an accumulation of amyloid precursor protein (APP)-derived amyloid protein (A) into extracellular A plaques and microglia-mediated inflammatory response in the brain. This study demonstrated that CNI-1493 (a synthetic guanylhydrazone with clinically proven anti-inflammatory properties) significantly suppressed the development of A plaques, improved memory performance, and caused microglial deactivation in a murine AD model after two months of intraperitoneal administration. In cultured APP-overexpressing mouse cells, CNI-1493 dose-dependently inhibited A secretion. These newly identified effects of CNI-1493 suggest that CNI-1493 may be a promising lead compound for the development of anti-Alzheimer agents.

Synthetic mimics of natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) hold the promise of becoming a new class of antibiotics because they are more refractory to the development of drug resistance than conventional antibiotics. This study described an approach for the synthesis of a variety of oxanobornene-derived monomers with facial amphiphilicity (segregation of hydrophobic and polar groups on different faces of the molecules), and subsequent polymerization of these monomers into polymeric mimics of AMPs with high selectivity for bacteria over mammalian cells. These synthetic AMP mimics also exhibited selectivity among bacteria, with some being more selective for Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli and others being more selective for Gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus.

Photolithography is a well-established micropatterning technique for inorganic electronic devices. Yet its use in organic electronic devices has been hindered by chemical incompatibility between organic electronic materials and photolithographic reagents including solvents, with the resultant damage to or decreased performance of organic electronic materials. This study described a dry photolithography process that utilizes dry supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂, an environmentally friendly agent suitable for high- resolution nanofabrication) instead of the conventional wet solution. With this method, it further demonstrated micropatterning of conducting polymers and light-emitting polymers for organic light-emitting diodes.