Abstract

Natural products often unite structure and function in unforeseen ways. Such facets have long driven total synthesis and drug discovery campaigns. The challenge for the chemist is to orchestrate a sequence of synthetic methods into a workable, clever strategy. For the biologist, it is to reveal and cleverly harness drug targets in new, therapeutic ways. In our research, we aim to tackle such challenges by advancing methods and strategies in organic and medicinal chemistry. Herein, we present key methods, strategies and bio-tactics that were advanced en route to uncovering the chemistry and biology of the (1) laetirobins, (2) lipstatins, (3) platensimycins, (4) antimalarial peptides and quinolines, (5) pathogenic glycolipids and inositol surrogates, and (6) bielschowskysin.