{"id":246253,"date":"2026-10-31T03:28:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/scientists-use-light-to-build-a-new-generation-of-drug-molecules"},"modified":"2026-10-31T03:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:28:42","slug":"scientists-use-light-to-build-a-new-generation-of-drug-molecules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/scientists-use-light-to-build-a-new-generation-of-drug-molecules","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Use Light To Build a New Generation of Drug Molecules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A new light-powered chemical technique could give scientists more freedom to design drug molecules with complex three-dimensional shapes. Researchers at the <a href=\"https:\/\/scitechdaily.com\/tag\/the-university-of-hong-kong\/\">University of Hong Kong (HKU)<\/a> have developed a way to produce molecular structures that could serve as alternatives to benzene rings, which are widely used in medicines but can sometimes limit their properties.<\/p>\n<p>Led by Professor Jian He from HKU\u2019s Department of Chemistry, the team developed specialized copper(I) photosensitizers that use visible light to construct bicyclo[2.1.1]hexanes, or BCHs. Published in <em><i>Nature Chemistry<\/i><\/em>, the research addresses two major challenges in producing these structures: the limited range of compatible starting materials and unwanted chemical reactions that interfere with synthesis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new light-powered chemical technique could give scientists more freedom to design drug molecules with complex three-dimensional shapes. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have developed a way to produce molecular structures that could serve as alternatives to benzene rings, which are widely used in medicines but can sometimes limit their properties. Led [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}