Protein Chemistry Research Group at North Carolina State University. https://ohatalab.wordpress.ncsu.edu/https://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3mufjavwiu22lJun is now an Early Career Board member of the Bioconjugate Chemistry journal! If you have any ideas to make the bioconjugation and relevant fields better, feel free to reach out to him!! https://axial.acs.org/biological-chemistry-and-chemical-biology/bioconjugate-chemistry-announces-inaugural-early-career-board31 Aug 2026 18:16 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mufjavwiu22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3mphkwqq7f225Our colleague Yi Xiao's group developed a generalizable DNA aptamer system, published @JACS_Au! Happy to be part of this collaborative work! https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.6c0070329 Jun 2026 22:46 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mphkwqq7f225https://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3mlta7uhbsc2kWhen there was a challenge to reproduce mechanochemistry experiments to make a dehydroalanine peptide, we found liquid-assisted grinding helps obtain the product more reliably for this particular case! Published in @OrgBiomolChem https://doi.org/10.1039/D6OB00662K14 May 2026 16:25 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlta7uhbsc2khttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3mlt7u6nndk2kBy borrowing awesome mechanochemical Birch reduction of Profs. Kubota and @haj19932469, we tried chemical modification of phenylalanine in peptides! Diels-Alder reaction to potentially label the reduced aromatic ring. @JOC_OL https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.5c0288214 May 2026 16:19 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlt7u6nndk2khttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3mj6azca4pk2xDiketopiperazines are peptides and also heterocycles like nucleobases. They often show up in prebiotic chemistry research, but are they really important? Check out a review from our group @AsianJOrgChem http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajoc.7039510 Apr 2026 21:23 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mj6azca4pk2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3mfk3m3yfjk23It may sound weird but recent bioconjugation methods often rely on a gas... Check out our collaborative review with Jun's advisor Zach Ball at Rice https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.20250356523 Feb 2026 16:37 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfk3m3yfjk23https://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3magbzsiyvc2iA classical Friedel-Crafts reaction may not be biocompatible partly because acid catalysts are needed. Our work in JACS_Au showed a boron unit makes it "catalyst-free" for tryptophan bioconjugation! The century-old reaction still has a lot going on! https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.5c0116820 Dec 2025 13:16 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3magbzsiyvc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3lz4sqiohhc2kA cyclic peptide found in meteorite may undergo mechanochemical reactions with formaldehyde! The first prebiotic chemistry paper from our group published in ACS Bio&Med Chem Au.https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomedchemau.5c0016718 Sep 2025 16:52 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3lz4sqiohhc2khttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3lnxntp45ok2jOur collaborative review paper with the @K_Oisaki & Sato labs about catalysis of protein bioconjugation was published @ChemCatChem See how 7 types of catalysis were used for modification of proteins! https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.20240212529 Apr 2025 16:04 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3lnxntp45ok2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3lhu5eudz6s2aSerine has diverse roles in living systems, but development of serine labeling tools has been a challenge. Our work published @ChemEurJ achieved chemoselective serine acylation in an unbiased manner! https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.20240400210 Feb 2025 22:00 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhu5eudz6s2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/ohatalab.bsky.social/post/3lcusc6rgyc2nWant to improve your writing at a word level? Try the CASPArS method! It's free! This method visualizes how and how often a word of interest is used in a certain context. Virtually applicable for any given science field! https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c0078109 Dec 2024 13:08 +0000at://did:plc:xllzigigha2q57xtdjlskhnz/app.bsky.feed.post/3lcusc6rgyc2n