NEWS AND VIEWS 06 May 2026 When the concept of ‘click’ chemistry — highly effective and specific reactions — was first reported, some dismissed it as a gimmick. But it has transformed many fields of research. By Willow A. Davis Willow A. Davis is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. Ellen M. Sletten Ellen M. Sletten is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. In 2001, the chemists H. C. Kolb, M. G. Finn and K. Barry Sharpless published a review 1 in Angewandte Chemie that revolutionized how molecules were used in several scientific fields. The paper launched the concept of click chemistry: a class of chemical reactions that work in solution exceptionally efficiently to ‘click’ together two or more molecules in a highly specific manner and without producing any unwanted by-products.…