This month's front cover (below) features a paper by Alessandro Volonterio and colleagues from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. The article describes a new class of peptidomimetics that have a stereogenic trifluoroethylamine group as a natural peptide-bond surrogate. 

The paper featured on the inside front cover (below) describes a strategy for the synthesis of 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-iminohexitols and 2,5-dideoxy-2,5-iminoglyconic acids reported by María Ruiz, Vicente Ojea and co-workers Universidade da Coruña, Spain. 

In a hot communication, Robert Stockman from the University of Nottingham, UK, reports on two-directional cross-metathesis with a variety of electron deficient alkenes. The team found that the process is quite general and gives complete selectivity for the E,E-dienes, making this a very useful and high yielding protocol for two-directional chain elongation. 

In this issue's Emerging Area Kazuya Ogawa and Yoshiaki Kobuke from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, talk about the molecular design of two-photon absorption materials and their applications for photodynamic therapy at deep tissue sites. 

Chi-Huey Wong from Scripps Research Institute, US, and colleagues, discuss the new developments in glycan arrays in this issue's Perspective article. Glycan arrays are not only a powerful tool for basic research, but also a promising technique for medical diagnosis, and detection of pathogens and cancers.