Front Cover: Functional Linkers Support Targeting of Multivalent Tweezers to Taspase1 (Chem. Eur. J. 56/2024)

Dancing in the dark: Supramolecular binding units mediate specific docking of novel linker systems to lock the ligands’ jaws on the target protease Taspase1. Molecular tweezers were connected by aggregation-induced emission (AIE) functionalities to generate spider-like inhibitors lighting up upon protein binding. Utilizing a calix[4]arene backbone resulted in a scorpion-like double pincer ligand with even superior binding and enzyme inhibition properties. More information can be found in the Research Article by J. Voskuhl, T. Schrader, S. K. Knauer and co-workers (DOI: 10.1002/chem.202401542).