In a paper appearing today online in Nat. Chem., the Engle lab reports a method of cleaving typically unreactive carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bonds via β-X elimination from alkylpalladium(II) intermediates. This reaction enables functional group metathesis (or exchange) between C(sp³)–C, C(sp³)–N, C(sp³)–O, and C(sp³)–S, and C(sp³)–F bonds, which has enabled the development of synthetically useful new transformations, such as the upgrading of inexpensive natural amino acids to valuable non-natural counterparts. Congrats to the project team of Van, John, and Kin on this awesome piece of work. Click here for a link.

(not pictured: Kin)