Congratulations to the SYNTHESIS and SYNLETT Best Paper Award Winners 2024!

Yota Sakakibara and Kei Murakami for SYNTHESIS and Sunkyu Han for SYNLETT, together with their co-authors, are the recipients of the 2024 Best Paper Awards.

It is our great pleasure to announce that the SYNTHESIS Best Paper Award 2024 is being awarded to Yota Sakakibara, Kei Murakami and co-workers at Kwansei Gakuin University and JST PRESTO (Japan) for their paper Photoredox-Enabled Synthesis of a-Alkylated Alkenylammonium Salts, which was included in the Special Issue PSRC-10 (10th Pacific Symposium on Radical Chemistry).

In revealing this year’s winning paper, Mark Lautens, Editor-in-Chief of SYNTHESIS, wrote: “The publication of Professor Murakami and co-workers outlines an interesting use of ammonium salts containing a vinyl bromide as a reagent for addition to 1,1-diaryl ethylenes. Reaction occurs under photoredox conditions and offers a way to preserve and directly use ammonium salts in novel reactions. As one editor put it, “ammonium salts are a somewhat forgotten group to carry through many classes of reactions.” Murakami is changing that perspective with this excellent contribution.”

We are delighted to announce that the SYNLETT Best Paper Award 2024 is being awarded to Sunkyu Han and co-workers at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) for their article Total Synthesis of 4a-Hydroxyallosecurinine and Securingine F, Securinega Alkaloids with a C4-Hydroxy Handle for Biofunctional Derivatizations, which was published as part of the Cluster Biomimetic Synthesis.

In announcing the selection, Debrabati Maiti, Editor-in-Chief of SYNLETT, stated: “This manuscript was selected as the "best paper" for its significant contribution to natural product synthesis.It reports the first total syntheses of 4¢-hydroxyallosecurinine and securingine F, complex securinega alkaloids with promising biological activity. The authors address the challenge of the lack of functional handles in these alkaloids by strategically introducing a hydroxy group at the C4 position. Their elegant synthetic route features key transformations like a stereoselective aza-Michael addition, a creative HAT-mediated C2 epimerization, and an efficient 1,2-amine shift. They further streamlined the synthesis with a one-pot Mitsunobu-based approach. This work enables future biofunctional derivatizations for target identification and ADC development, opening new avenues for research in this important area. The manuscript is well-written and clearly presented, showcasing the authors’ technical expertise and the broad potential of their methodology.”