25 years ago click chemistry changed science. What happened next?

Barry Sharpless and his team first popularised the concept of ‘clicking’ two molecules together back in 2001 – 25 years ago this month. The review paper that launched a new field has now been cited almost 20,000 times, making it one of the most influential chemistry papers ever written. And in 2022, Sharpless, along with Morten Meldal and Carolyn Bertozzi, won the Nobel prize in chemistry for establishing the field of click and bioorthogonal chemistry. But what are click reactions and what might the next 25 years of this field look like?