Mark Levin
@levinchem.bsky.social
Professor of Chemistry
University of Chicago
Single-Atom Skeletal Editing
(Interspersed with doomposting and AI skepticism)
Husband, Dad, Crossword Addict
http://levingroup.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago
Single-Atom Skeletal Editing
(Interspersed with doomposting and AI skepticism)
Husband, Dad, Crossword Addict
http://levingroup.uchicago.edu
God I wish it was only because of DOGE
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 AM
God I wish it was only because of DOGE
A true pleasure to host Koji Kubota @uchichemistry.bsky.social for a stop on his Merck Banyu Lectureship Award Tour!
October 21, 2025 at 1:24 AM
A true pleasure to host Koji Kubota @uchichemistry.bsky.social for a stop on his Merck Banyu Lectureship Award Tour!
New @chemrxiv.org, a collaboration with @honggen-wang.bsky.social and group alum, now asst prof. Myojeong Kim: the first true catalytic interception of isodiazene-generated primary-amine-derived radicals. The key is an N-F reagent that enables productive chain carrying!
doi.org/10.26434/che...
doi.org/10.26434/che...
October 21, 2025 at 1:14 AM
New @chemrxiv.org, a collaboration with @honggen-wang.bsky.social and group alum, now asst prof. Myojeong Kim: the first true catalytic interception of isodiazene-generated primary-amine-derived radicals. The key is an N-F reagent that enables productive chain carrying!
doi.org/10.26434/che...
doi.org/10.26434/che...
🚨FEE WAIVERS!🚨
Sign up for our info sessions on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11th - anyone who registers and attends will get an application fee waiver!
chemistry.uchicago.edu/graduate-pro...
Sign up for our info sessions on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11th - anyone who registers and attends will get an application fee waiver!
chemistry.uchicago.edu/graduate-pro...
September 18, 2025 at 2:10 PM
🚨FEE WAIVERS!🚨
Sign up for our info sessions on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11th - anyone who registers and attends will get an application fee waiver!
chemistry.uchicago.edu/graduate-pro...
Sign up for our info sessions on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11th - anyone who registers and attends will get an application fee waiver!
chemistry.uchicago.edu/graduate-pro...
If you're at ACS this Wednesday, come by my talk at 2:05 PM in the East Salon A, part of the joint ORGN/AGRO symposium on accelerating discovery and development!
August 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM
If you're at ACS this Wednesday, come by my talk at 2:05 PM in the East Salon A, part of the joint ORGN/AGRO symposium on accelerating discovery and development!
It still can't electron push - here are some of it's attempts at peracid epoxidation.
The text description of the mechanism is not bad, but not perfect. Seems unable to connect that to images
The text description of the mechanism is not bad, but not perfect. Seems unable to connect that to images
August 9, 2025 at 1:35 AM
It still can't electron push - here are some of it's attempts at peracid epoxidation.
The text description of the mechanism is not bad, but not perfect. Seems unable to connect that to images
The text description of the mechanism is not bad, but not perfect. Seems unable to connect that to images
Here is what happens with more prodding to use the (mostly correct) text description of the mechanism to "design it explicitly in chemical drawing software logic"
Second image is after it asked me if I wanted it to "refine further"
Second image is after it asked me if I wanted it to "refine further"
August 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Here is what happens with more prodding to use the (mostly correct) text description of the mechanism to "design it explicitly in chemical drawing software logic"
Second image is after it asked me if I wanted it to "refine further"
Second image is after it asked me if I wanted it to "refine further"
lol @ PhD's in my pocket - still can't electron push 🤷♂️
August 8, 2025 at 3:59 PM
lol @ PhD's in my pocket - still can't electron push 🤷♂️
Today in @science.org, @mikusp.bsky.social reports a method to replace the C2 of pyridines with N, affording pyridazines.
The change from electronically consonant (pyridine) to dissonant (pyridazine) opens retrosyntheses not typically available to the latter.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The change from electronically consonant (pyridine) to dissonant (pyridazine) opens retrosyntheses not typically available to the latter.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
July 17, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Today in @science.org, @mikusp.bsky.social reports a method to replace the C2 of pyridines with N, affording pyridazines.
The change from electronically consonant (pyridine) to dissonant (pyridazine) opens retrosyntheses not typically available to the latter.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The change from electronically consonant (pyridine) to dissonant (pyridazine) opens retrosyntheses not typically available to the latter.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
May 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
April 14, 2025 at 2:58 PM
You'll soon be able to purchase the key aminating reagent - watch this space!
April 3, 2025 at 4:27 PM
You'll soon be able to purchase the key aminating reagent - watch this space!
If you're interested in a break from the doom-and-gloom, may I recommend our article, online today @nature.com
A solution to the pyrazole alkylation problem, leveraging S-to-NR atom replacement. Skeletal editing has strategic value, outside of late-stage!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A solution to the pyrazole alkylation problem, leveraging S-to-NR atom replacement. Skeletal editing has strategic value, outside of late-stage!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
April 3, 2025 at 4:27 PM
If you're interested in a break from the doom-and-gloom, may I recommend our article, online today @nature.com
A solution to the pyrazole alkylation problem, leveraging S-to-NR atom replacement. Skeletal editing has strategic value, outside of late-stage!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A solution to the pyrazole alkylation problem, leveraging S-to-NR atom replacement. Skeletal editing has strategic value, outside of late-stage!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It's finally in the Federal Register!
2 months late is better than never!
2 months late is better than never!
March 18, 2025 at 10:05 PM
It's finally in the Federal Register!
2 months late is better than never!
2 months late is better than never!
This is supposed to be a visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem (you spin and it drains into the other squares), but @msichicago.bsky.social can't seem to get the fill level right - two photos, ~1 year apart
February 23, 2025 at 10:41 PM
This is supposed to be a visual proof of the Pythagorean theorem (you spin and it drains into the other squares), but @msichicago.bsky.social can't seem to get the fill level right - two photos, ~1 year apart
This passage from Derek captures the insanity of these past few weeks so much better than I could ever articulate
February 10, 2025 at 7:35 PM
This passage from Derek captures the insanity of these past few weeks so much better than I could ever articulate
Alexandra Petri has been putting a brilliant voice to my frustrations these past few weeks. Her column is (maybe unfortunately) a must-read these days.
November 18, 2024 at 6:37 PM
Alexandra Petri has been putting a brilliant voice to my frustrations these past few weeks. Her column is (maybe unfortunately) a must-read these days.
Now online as an accepted article, a novel hypervalent iodine reagent that functions as a source of electrophilic "N". My first student, Patrick Kelly's swan song (now a postdoc with the Stahl lab), done in collaboration with scientists at GSK.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
November 12, 2024 at 3:42 PM
Now online as an accepted article, a novel hypervalent iodine reagent that functions as a source of electrophilic "N". My first student, Patrick Kelly's swan song (now a postdoc with the Stahl lab), done in collaboration with scientists at GSK.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
I have gotten in the habit of sending something like this to my coauthors everytime we submit - the last mile stuff (final experiments, waiting for reviews, revisions) can be such a slog that it's easy to forget to celebrate.
October 23, 2023 at 1:46 PM
I have gotten in the habit of sending something like this to my coauthors everytime we submit - the last mile stuff (final experiments, waiting for reviews, revisions) can be such a slog that it's easy to forget to celebrate.
The problem I started my lab to work on. Not the end of the story, but a huge first step from @tylerpearson.bsky.social
Replace an aromatic carbon atom with no perturbation of the rest of the skeleton - if you put the azide in with C-H functionalization, you can scan positions on a parent arene.
Replace an aromatic carbon atom with no perturbation of the rest of the skeleton - if you put the azide in with C-H functionalization, you can scan positions on a parent arene.
September 28, 2023 at 6:26 PM
The problem I started my lab to work on. Not the end of the story, but a huge first step from @tylerpearson.bsky.social
Replace an aromatic carbon atom with no perturbation of the rest of the skeleton - if you put the azide in with C-H functionalization, you can scan positions on a parent arene.
Replace an aromatic carbon atom with no perturbation of the rest of the skeleton - if you put the azide in with C-H functionalization, you can scan positions on a parent arene.