Directing group ‘dance’ decorates heterocycles

A directing group that effortlessly moves from one to the other ring in bicyclic heteroaromatics could shorten lengthy reaction sequences – a boon for drug discovery and work that has already attracted attention of medicinal chemists. Chemists have now designed a carbamoyl directing group that can be attached to one or the other nitrogen atom in 7-azaindoles, directing metallation to either of the molecule’s aromatic rings. More importantly, the group can move between these nitrogen atoms on demand without chemists having to detach and reattach it.