It is, simply put, about making difficult processes easier. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal have laid the foundation for – click chemistry – in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Carolyn Bertozzi took click chemistry to a new dimension when she started utilising it in living organisms. Using bioorthogonal reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals, which are now being tested in clinical trials.
We believe that this quick and elegant process will be of great value for the next generation of both diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. Maybe especially for some short-lived isotopes where other conjugation techniques are too slow and complex. In this sense click chemistry could really open up new possibilities for even more efficient theragnostic cancer care.