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THE NELSON LAB
  • Home
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    • Structural Chemistrty
    • Synthesis and Catalysis
    • Patents
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Publications

2025


Spatially-Aware Diffraction Mapping Enables Fully Autonomous MicroED
Eremin, D.; Jha, K. K.; Delgadillo, D. A,; Zhang, H.; Foxman, S.; Johnson, S.; Vlahakis, N.; Cascio, D.; Lavallo, V.; Rodriguez, J.; Nelson, H. M. ChemRxiv 2025
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Genome Mining of Fungal Aza-Polycylic Natural Products Derived from Arginine-Containing Cyclodipeptides
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Niwa, K.; Delgadillo, D. A.; Yee, D. A.; Luo, C.; Fan, F.; Jha, K. K.; Nelson, H. M.; Tang, Y. J. Nat. Prod. ​2025
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Microcrystal Electron Diffraction-Guided Discovery of Fungal Metabolites
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Delgadillo, D. A.; Wu, L.; Wang, C; Zhang, Y.; Jha, K. K.; Burch, J. E.; de Moraes, L. S.; Rodriguez, I. H.; Tang, M. J.; Bills, G. F.; Tu, B. P.; Tang, Y.; Nelson, H. M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. ​2025
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Discovery of an Interlocked and Interwoven Molecular Topology in Nanocarbons via Dynamic C-C Bond Formation
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Bergman, H. M.; Fan, A. T.; Jones, C. G.; Rothenberger, A. J.; Jha, K. K.; Handford, R. C.; Nelson, H. M.; Liu, Y.; Tilley, T. D. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025
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Comparative Study of Solvatomorphs of Stryker’s Reagent using MicroED and Quantum Mechanics​
Jha, K. K.; Rothbaum, J.; Bhethanabotla, V.; Musgrave, C.; Jones, C.; Morozov, S.; Goddard, W.; Nelson, H. M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2025
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Fast event-based electron counting for small-mol­ecule structure determination by MicroED
Vlahakis, N.; Qu, S.; Richards, L. S.; de Moraes, L. S.; Cascio D.; Nelson, H. M.; Rodriguez, J. A. Struc. Chem. 2025
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Combining MicroED and native mass spectrometry for structural discovery of enzyme-biosynthetic inhibitor complexes
Vlahakis, N. W.; Flowers, C. W.; Liu, M.; Agdanowski, M.; Johnson, S.; Summers, J. A.; Keyser, C.; Russell, P.; Rose S.; Orlans, J.; Adhami, N.; Chen, Y.; Sawaya, M. R.; Basu, S.; De Sanctis, D.; Wakatsuki, S.; Nelson, H. M.; Loo, J.; Tang, Y.; Rodriguez, J. A. BioRxiv 2025

2024


​Carbon-Carbon Bond Forming Reactions of Vinyl Cations: A Personal Perspective
Riu, M. Y.; Popov, S.; Wigman, B.; Zhao, Z.; Wong, J.; Houk, K. N.; Nelson, H. M. Eur. J. Org. Chem. ​2024
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​High-Silica, Enantiomerically Enriched STW-Type Molecular Sieves
Park, Y.; Alshafei,  F. H.; de Moraes, L. S.; Rodriguez, I. H.; Deem, M. W.; Nelson, H. M.; Davis, M. E. Chem. Mater. ​2024
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Microcrystal electron diffraction-guided discovery of fungal metabolites 
Delgadillo, D. A.; Wu, L.; Wang, C.; Zhang Y.; Burch, J. E.; Jha, K. K.; de Moraes, L. S.; Bills, G. F.; Tu, B. P.; Tang, Y.; Nelson, H. M. ChemRxiv 2024.

Assessing the Applicability of Bayesian Inference for Merging Small Molecule MicroED Data 
Mai, H.; ​Peck, A.; Dalton, K. M.; de Moraes, L. S.; Burch, J. E.; Poitevin, F.; Nelson, H. M. ChemRxiv 2024.

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Main Group-Catalyzed Cationic Claisen Rearrangements via Vinyl Carbocations  
Williams, C. G.; Nistanaki, S. K.; Dong, K.; Lee, W.; Houk, K. N.; Nelson, H. M. Org. Lett. ​2024, 26, 23, 4847–4852.


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Distinct Function of Chlamydomonas CTRA-CTR Transporters in Cu Assimilation and Intracellular Mobilization  
Strenkert, D.; Schmollinger, S.; Paruthiyil, S.; Brown, B. C.; Green, S.; Shafer, C. M.; Salomé, P.; Nelson, H.; Blaby-Haas, C. E.; Moseley, J. L.; Merchant, S. S. Metallomics ​2024, 16, 3, mfae013.


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Structural Elucidation and Absolute Stereochemistry for Pharma Compounds Using MicroED 
​de Moraes, L. S.; Burch, J. E.; Delgadillo, D. A.; ​Hernandez Rodriguez, I.; Mai, H.; Smith, A. G.; Caille, S.; Walker, S. D.; Wurz, R. P.; Cee, V. J.; Rodriguez, J. A.; Gostovic, D.; Quasdorf, K.; Nelson, H. M. Org. Lett. 2024, in press.


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A Geometrically Flexible Three-Dimensional Nanocarbon
Tang, C.; Han, H.; Zhang, R.; de Moraes, L. S.; Qi, Y.; Wu, G.; Jones, C. G.; Hernandez Rodriguez, I.; Jiao, Y.; Liu, W.; Li, X.; Chen, H.; Bancroft, L.; Zhao, X.; Stern, C. L.; Guo, Q.; Krzyaniak, M. D.; Wasielewski, M. R.; Nelson, H. M.; Li, P.; Stoddart, J. F. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 29, 20158–20167.


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Gas-Induced Electrical and Magnetic Modulation of Two-Dimensional Conductive Metal-Organic Framework
Meng, Z.; Stolz, R. M.; de Moraes, L. S.; Jones, C. G.; Eagleton, A. M.; Nelson, H. M.; Mirica, K. A. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024, 63, 24, e202404290. 


A New Topological Class of Interlocked and Interwoven Nanocarbons via Dynamic C-C Bond Formation
Bergman, H. M.; Fan, A., Jones, C. G.; Rothenberger, A. J.; Jha, K. K.; Handford, R. C.; Nelson, H. M.; Liu, Y.; Tilley, T. D. ChemRxiv 2024.

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Discovery and Characterization of Pyridoxal 5'-Phosphate-Dependent Cycloleucine Synthases
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Abad, A. N.; Seshadri, K.; Ohashi, M.; Delgadillo, D. A.; de Moraes, L. S.; Nagasawa, K. K.; Liu, M.; Johnson, S.; Nelson, H. M.; Tang, Y. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 21, 14672–14684.


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Accessing Medium-Sized Rings via Vinyl Carbocation Intermediates  
Zhao, Z.; Popov, S.; Lee, W.; Burch, J. E.; Delgadillo, D. A.; Kim, L. J.; Shahgholi, M.; Lebrón-Acosta, N.; Houk, K. N.; Nelson, H. M. Org. Lett. ​2024, 26, 5, 1000–1005.


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High-throughput Identification of Crystalline Natural Products from Crude Extracts Enabled by Microarray Technology and MicroED
Delgadillo, D. A.; Burch, J. E.; Kim, L. J.; de Moraes L.; Niwa, K.; Williams, J.; Tang, M. J.; Lavallo, V.; Chhetri, B.; Jones, C. G.; Rodriguez, I. H.; Signore, J.; Marquez, L.; Bhanushali, R.; Greene, M.; Woo, S.; Kubanek, J.; Quave, C. L.; Tang, Y.; Nelson, H. M. ACS Cent. Sci. 2024, 10, 1, 176–183.

2023


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Genome Mining from Agriculturally Relevant Fungi Led to a D-Glucose Esterified Polyketide with a Terpene-like Core Structure
Yan, C.; Han, W.; Zhou, Q.; Niwa, K.; Tang, M. J.; ​​Burch, J. E.; Zhang, Y.; Delgadillo, D. A.; Sun, Z.; Wu, Z.; Jacobsen, S. E.; Nelson, H. M.; Houk, K. N.; Tang, Y. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 46, 25080–25085.


A Heterologous expression platform in Aspergillus nidulans for the elucidation of cryptic secondary metabolism biosynthetic gene clusters: discovery of the Aspergillus fumigatus sartorypyrone biosynthetic pathway
Lin, S. Y.; Oakley, C. E.; Jenkinson, C. B.; Chiang, Y. M.; Lee, C. K.; Jones, C. G.; Seidler, P. M.; Nelson, H. M.; Todd, R. B.; Wang, C.C.; Oakley, B.R. Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 11022–11032.

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Cryptic Chemical Variation in a Marine Red Alga as Revealed by Nontargeted Metabolomics
Chhetri, B. K.; Mojib, N.; Moore, S. G.; Delgadillo, D. A.; Burch, J. E.; Barrett, N. H.; Gaul, D. A.; Marquez, L.; Soapi, K.; Nelson, H. M.; Quave, C. L.; Kubanek, J. ACS Omega 2023, 8, 15, 13899–13910.


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α-Vinylation of Ester Equivalents via Main Group Catalysis for the Construction of Quaternary Centers  
Williams, C. G.; Nistanaki, S. K.; Wells, C. W.; Nelson, H. M. Org. Lett. ​2023, 25, 20, 3591–3595.


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Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of (+)-Xyloketal B
Romero, E. O.; Perkins, J. C.; Burch, J. E.; Delgadillo, D. A.; Nelson, H. M.; Narayan, A. R. H. Org. Lett. 2023, 25, 9, 1547–1552.


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Computational Exploration of the Nature of Li+-Ureide Anion Catalysis on Formation of Highly Reactive Vinyl Carbocations and Subsequent C–C Bond Forming Reactions
Lee, W.; Nelson, H. M.; Houk, K. N. J. Org. Chem. ​2023, 88, 6, 3403–3408.

2022


Sterically Invariant Carborane-Based Ligands for the Morphological and Electronic Control of Metal–Organic Chalcogenolate Assemblies 
Mills, H. A.; Jones, C. G.; Anderson, K. P.; Ready, A. D.; Djurovich, P. I.; Khan, S. I.; Hohman, N. J.; Nelson, H. M.; Spokoyny, A. M. Chem. Mat. ​2022, 15, 6933–6943.

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Catalytic asymmetric C–H insertion reactions of vinyl carbocations 
Nistanaki, S. K.; Williams, C. G.; Wigman, B.; Wong J. J.; Haas, B. C.; Popov, S.; Werth, J.; Sigman, M. S.; Houk, K. N.; Nelson, H. M. Science ​2022, 378, 1085–1091. ​
This article was highlighted in Nature, C&EN, & The Caltech Weekly.


Cesium carbonate mediated C–H functionalization of perhalogenated 12-vertex carborane anions
Lovera, S. O; Bagsdasarian, A. L; Guo, J; Nelson, H. M.; Lavallo, V. Chem. Commun. 2022, 58, 4060–4062.

Electrochemical Fluorination of Vinyl Boronates Through Donor-Stabilized Vinyl Carbocation Intermediates 
Wigman, B.; Lee, W.; Wei, W.; Houk, K. N.; Nelson, H. M. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. ​2022, 60, e202113972.   
First appeared on ChemRxiv.
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Sterically Invariant Carborane-Based Ligands for the Morphological and Electronic Control of Metal–Organic Chalcogenolate Assemblies 
Mills, H. A.; Jones, C. G.; Anderson, K. P.; Ready, A. D.; Djurovich, P. I.; Khan, S. I.; Hohman, N. J.; Nelson, H. M.; Spokoyny, A. M. Chem. Mat. ​2022, 15, 6933–6943.

2021


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Conductive Stimuli-Responsive Coordination Network Linked with Bismuth for Chemiresistive Gas Sensing 
Aykanat, A.; Jones, C. G.; Cline, E.; Stolz, R. M.; Meng, Z.; Nelson, H. M.; Mirica, K. A. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, 50, 60306–60318.


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Solution-processable and functionalizable ultra-high molecular weight polymers via topochemical synthesis 
Anderson, C. L.; Li, H.; Jones, C. G.; Teat, S. J.; Settineri, N. S.; Dailing, E. A.; Liang, J.; Mao, H.; Klivansky, L. M.; Li, X.; Reimer, J. A.; Nelson, H. M.; Liu, Y. Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 1–8. ​


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Unraveling the Electrical and Magnetic Properties of Lawyered Conductive Metal− Organic Framework With Atomic Precision 
Meng, Z.; Jones, C. G.; Farid, S.; Khan, I. U.; Nelson, H. M.; Mirica, K. A. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, ​2–11. 


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Putting MicroED to the Test: An Account of the Evaluation of 30 Diverse Pharmaceutical Compounds 
Burch, J. E.; Smith, A. G.; Caille, S.; Walker, S. D.; Wurz, R.; Cee, V. J.; Rodriguez, J.; Gostovic, D.; Quasdorf, K.; Nelson, H. M. ChemRxiv 2021.


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Biosynthesis of the Fusarium Mycotoxin (–)-Sambutoxin 
Go, E. B.; Kim, L. J.; Nelson, H. M.; Ohashi, M.; Tang, Y. Org. Lett. 2021, 23, 7819–7823.


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Prospecting for natural products by genome mining and microcystal electron diffraction 
Kim, L. J.; Ohashi, M.; Tan, D.; Asay, M.; Cascio, D.; Rodriguez, J; Tang, Y.; Nelson, H. M. Nat. Chem. Bio. 2021, 17, 872–877. 
This article was highlighted in C&EN.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.


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Enhanced Gearing Fidelity Achieved Through Macrocyclization of a Solvated Molecular Spur Gear 
Jellen, M. J.; Liepuoniute, I.; Jin, M.; Jones, C. G.; Yang, S.; Jiang, X.; Nelson, H. M.;  Houk, K. N.; Garcia-Garibay, M. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 7740–7747.


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Structural Revision of the Lomaiviticins 
Kim, L. J.; Xue, M.; Li, X.; Xu, Z.; Paulson, E.; Mercado, B. Q.; Nelson, H. M.; Herzon, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 6578–6585.
This article was highlighted in C&EN.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.


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Isolation and X-ray Crystal Structure of an Electrogenerated TEMPO-N3 Charge-Transfer Complex 
Nelson, H. M.; Siu, J. C.; Saha, A.; Cascio, D.; MacMillan, S. N.; Wu, S. B.; Lu, C.; Rodriguez, J. A.; Houk, K. N.; Lin, S. Org. Lett. 2021, 2, 454–458.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.

2020


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Elucidation of Diverse Solid-State Packing in a Family of Electron-Deficient Expanded Helicenes via Microcrystal Electron Diffraction (MicroED) 
Samkian, A.; Kiel, G. R.; Jones, C. G.; Bergman, H.; Oktawiec, J.; Nelson, H. M.; Tilley, T. D. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 5, 2493–2499. 
First appeared on ChemRxiv.


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Chemocatalytic Amplification Probes Enable Transcriptionally-Regulated Au(I)-Catalysis in E. coli and Sensitive Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Fragments  
Green, S.; Wigman, B. W.; Nistanaki, S. K.; Montgomery, H.; Jones, C. G.; Nelson, H. M. ChemRxiv 2020.


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Terpene Tail-to-Head Polycyclization Mediated by Small Molecule Catalysts: A Weakly-Coordinating Anion Approach 
Burch, J. E.; Bagdasarian, A. L.; Hooshmand, T.; Nelson, H. M. ChemRxiv 2020.


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Urea-Catalyzed Vinyl Carbocation Formation Enables Mild Functionalization of Unactivated C-H Bonds 
Bagdasarian, A. L.; Popov, S.; Wigman, B.; Wei, W.; Lee, W.; Nelson, H. M. Org. Lett. 2020, 22, 7775–7779.
This article was highlighted in Synfacts.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.


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Dewar Heterocycles as Versatile Monomers for Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization 
Nistanaki, S. K.; Nelson, H. M. ACS Macro Lett. 2020, 9, 731–735.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.


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Identification of Uric Acid Gluconucleoside–Ascaroside Conjugates in Caenorhabditis elegans by Combining Synthesis and MicroED 
Curtis, B. J.; Kim, L. J.; Wrobel, C. J. J.; Eagen, J. M.; Smith, R. A.; Burch, J. E.; Le, H. H.; Artyukhin, A. B.; Nelson, H. M.; Schroeder, F. C. Org. Lett. 2020, 22, 6724–6728.

2019


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Vinyl Carbocations Generated under Basic Conditions and Their Intramolecular C–H Insertion Reactions 
Wigman, B.; Popov, S.; Bagdasarian, A. L.; Shao, B.; Benton, T. R.; Williams, C. G.; Fisher, S. P.; Lavallo, V.; Houk, K. N.; Nelson, H. M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 9140–9144.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.


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Regulating Transition Metal Catalysis Through Interference by Short RNAs 
Green, S. A.; Montgomery, H. R.; Benton, T. R.; Chan, N. J.; Nelson, H. M. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58,16400–16404.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.​


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Nonclassical Applications of closo-Carborane Anions: From Main Group Chemistry and Catalysis to Energy Storage 
Fisher, S. P.; Tomich, A. W.; Lovera, S. O.; Kleinsasser, J. F.; Guo, J.; Asay, M. J.; Nelson, H. M.; Lavallo, V. Chem. Rev. 2019, 119, 8262–8290.


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A Concise Total Synthesis of (±)-Vibralactone 
Nistanaki, S. K.; Boralsky, L. A.; Pan, R. D.; Nelson, H. M. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 1724–1726.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.


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Characterization of Reactive Organometallic Species via MicroED 
Jones, C. G.; Asay, M.; Kim, L. J.; Kleinsasser, J. F.; Saha, A.; Fulton, T. J.; Berkly, K. R.; Cascio, D.; Malyutin, A. G.; Conley, M. P.; Stoltz, B. M.; Lavallo, V.; Rodriguez, J. A.; Nelson, H. M. ACS Cent. Sci. 2019, 5, 1507–1513.
First appeared on ChemRxiv.

2018


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The CryoEM Method MicroED as a Powerful Tool for Small Molecule Structure Determination 
Jones, C. G.; Martynowycz, M. W.; Hattne, J.; Fulton, T. J.; Stoltz, B. M.; Rodriguez, J. A.; Nelson, H. M.; Gonen, T. ACS Cent. Sci. 2018, 4, 1587–1592. 
First appeared on ChemRxiv.
This article was highlighted in ScienceNews, Science In the Pipeline, Nature & C&EN, NIH Director's Blog.


Teaching an old carbocation new tricks: Intermolecular C–H insertion reactions of vinyl cations 
Popov, S.; Shao, B.; Bagdasarian, A. L.; Benton, T. R.; Zhou, L.; Yang, Z.; Houk, K. N.; Nelson, H. M. Science 2018, 361, 381-387.

This article was highlighted in Science, C&EN, & UCLA Newsroom.
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Arylation of hydrocarbons enabled by organosilicon reagents and weakly coordinating anions 
Shao, B.*;  Bagdasarian, A. L.*; Popov, S.; Nelson, H. M. Science 2017, 355, 1403–1407. (Asterisks indicate equal contribution.) 
This article was highlighted in Synform.
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