Welcome, dear reader, to issue 25 of OBC!

The front cover of this week’s issue highlights the work of Rich G. Carter, Oregon State University, and colleagues. In this paper Carter et al. present the development of a proline sulphonamide-catalysed method that facilitates the annulation of α-aryl, α-alkyl-disubstituted aldehydes with acyclic enones to produce highly functionalized cyclohexenones with very good degrees of diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity.

Proline sulphonamide-catalysed Yamada–Otani condensation: reaction development, substrate scope and scaffold reactivity
Hua Yang, Somdev Banerjee and Rich G. Carter
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB25400J

The inside cover highlights the review of Brian Rasmussenand Jørn Bolstad Christensen that looks at the growing field of organocatalysis with dendrimers. This review outlines advances made in this area of organocatalysis and covers both interior- and surface-based examples, the catalysis of reactions ranging from functional group interconversion and C–C bond forming reactions to enzyme mimicking processes.

Organocatalytic dendrimers
Brian Rasmussen and Jørn Bolstad Christensen
DOI: 10.1039/C2OB25317H