Malaria is a devasting disease that causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. New therapies are urgently needed, because of the emergent resistance against current frontline therapies. This perspective highlights the contributions of Australian chemists and drug discovery experts to the field of antimalarial development.

The electrochemical properties of polyoxometallates have been studied in 12 room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). Clear trends in both the kinetics and thermodynamics of the reduction processes suggest interactions of the highly negatively charged reduction products with the positively charged RTIL cations, with imidazolium cations having the strongest effects.

This work reports the development of a small-molecule fluorescent probe bearing the unique β-arylethenesulfonyl fluoride unit for fluorescence colour switching and its application for the labelling and detection of bovine serum albumin.

Herein disclosed is the isolation of the 2-azabicyclo[4.2.0]octa-4,7-diene skeleton derived from the photochemical irradiation of 2-vinyl-1,2-dihydropyridine. A cascading 6π–8π–4π electrocyclic rearrangement is proposed as the mechanistic rationale. This is the first observation of this ring system.

In this highlight we briefly review the strategies used for developing better DFT methods and outline future directions based on a conceptually simple method for calculating the exchange–correlation hole.

The next generation of energy storage with stable organic radicals offers flexibility and lower costs compared to current lithium battery systems. This highlight showcases the recent developments of using ionic liquids to improve the stability and reversibility of the redox process.

The photochemical reaction pathways of heterocylic N-containing stilbene functions under visible light irradiation can be controlled by pH and the proximity of the reacting moieties.

Machine learning algorithms can learn complex relationships between physicochemical and process parameters and their useful properties for an extremely diverse range of molecular entities. Both the breadth of machine learning methods and the range of physical, chemical, materials, biological, medical and many other application areas have increased markedly in the past decade.

This Account highlights the work of Stephen G. Pyne on nitrogen heterocycles and alkaloids over 37 years at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.