A research team from Prof. Benjamin List's department at the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung has solved a long-elusive riddle of chemistry: the synthesis of stable, open-chain amines that carry their chirality on nitrogen. This marks the first achievement of its kind, enabled by a newly developed catalytic reaction and a precisely engineered, highly confined catalyst. The work of the Mülheim scientists is fundamental in nature but also opens up new avenues for active ingredients, catalysts, and materials.