Chemists have overcome a major hurdle in synthesizing a more stable form of heterocycle — a family of organic compounds that are a common component of most modern pharmaceuticals. The research, which could expand the toolkit available to drug developers in improving the safety profiles of medications and reducing side effects, was published in Science by organic chemists at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Michigan. “Azetidines are a particularly useful, stable form of heterocycle, but synthesizing them has been…