Since its conceptualization, click chemistry in all its variants has proven to be a superior synthesis protocol, compared to conventional methods, for forming new covalent bonds under mild conditions, orthogonally, and with high yields. If a term like reactive resilience could be established, click reactions would be good examples, as they perform better under increasingly challenging conditions. Particularly, highly hindered couplings that perform poorly with conventional chemistry protocols—such as those used to conjugate biomacromolecules (e.g., proteins and aptamers) or multiple drugs onto macromolecular platforms—can be more easily achieved using click chemistry principles, while also promoting high stereoselectivity in the products. In this review, three molecular platforms relevant in the field of nanomedicine are considered: polymers/copolymers, cyclodextrins, and fullerenes, whose functionalization poses a challenge due to steric hindrance, either from the intrinsic bulk behavior (as in polymers) or from the proximity of confined reactive sites, as seen in cyclodextrins and fullerenes. Their functionalization with biologically active groups (drugs or biomolecules), primarily through copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), strain-promoted azide–alkyne cycloaddition (SPAAC), inverse electron-demand Diels–Alder (IEDDA) and thiol–ene click reactions, has led to the development of increasingly sophisticated systems with enhanced specificity, multifunctionality, bioavailability, delayed clearance, multi-targeting, selective cytotoxicity, and tracking capabilities—all essential in the field of nanomedicine.

Novel organocatalysts derived from (R)- and (S)-proline and incorporating a chiral phosphoramide fragment were rationally designed and subsequently synthesized. These chiral compounds catalyze the enantioselective aldol addition reaction of cyclohexanone to prochiral isatins in the presence of water. These observations are particularly relevant since reports of asymmetric aldol reactions between cyclohexanone­ and isatins catalyzed by chiral secondary amines remain scarce, with primary amines being the most studied and successful catalysts. The present report includes a thorough evaluation of the new bifunctional catalysts that actually give rise to either enantiomer of the chiral product by proper selection of the configuration of the proline moiety.