Featured on this month's front cover (below) is a communication by Andrew Sutherland from the University of Glasgow, UK. The communication reports a stereoselective synthesis of (+)-physoperuvine, a tropane alkaloid from Physalis peruviana Linne, using a one-pot tandem aza-Claisen rearrangement and ring closing metathesis reaction to form the key amino-substituted cycloheptene ring. 

The inside front cover (below) features a communication by José M. García Fernández from the Universidad de Sevilla, Carmen Ortiz Mellet from the Instituto de Investigaciones Químicas, CSIC and Rafael Salto Universidad de Granada in Spain. In the communication they describe the synthesis of gene delivery systems based on the beta-cyclodextrin scaffold. Molecular flexibility, charge density and hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance are critical parameters that can be fine-tuned by this approach. 

In this month's Emerging Area Sarabindu Roy and Miquel A. Pericàs from the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Spain, discuss how functionalized nanoparticles can be used as catalysts for enantioselective transformations.