Celebrating click chemistry’s 25th birthday
By 
Mason Wakley2026-06-04T08:32:00
The field ‘is nowhere near mature – if not in its infancy, then perhaps enjoying a highly active childhood’, says one of click chemistry’s orignators
The 2001 review by Barry Sharpless and his team introducing the concept of ‘clicking’ two molecules together has over 20,000 citations, cementing it as one of the most influential chemistry papers ever written. But why was this concept so revolutionary and how has it changed over the past 25 years?