A team of researchers at the Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS, South Korea), have designed a novel strategy to synthesize ring-shaped cyclic molecules, highly sought-after by pharmaceutical and chemical industries, and known as gamma-lactams. This study describes how these five-membered rings can be prepared from inexpensive and readily available feedstock hydrocarbons, as well as from complex organic molecules, such as amino acids and steroids. Gamma-lactams find several applications in medicinal, synthetic, and material chemistry. For example, they are included in a large number of pharmaceutically active compounds with antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumoral functions. Published in Science, this research was conducted at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).