Use of biomimetic diversity-oriented synthesis to discover galanthamine-like molecules with biological properties beyond those of the natural product

Recent developments in combinatorial organic synthesis

The level of sophistication of combinatorial synthesis continues to increase at a heady pace. Fairly complex target molecules are now being assembled combinatorially using a broad palette of organic reactions both in solution- and solid-phase. This review highlights academic and industrial examples of combinatorial synthesis published within the last year. Recent advances in small-molecule synthesis are outlined, ranging from simple acyclic scaffolds to complex natural products.

Medicinals for the millennia: the historical record

Nature has been a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years, and an impressive number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources, many based on their use in traditional medicine. The use of herbal drugs is once more escalating in the form of complementary and alternative medicine. The past century, however, has seen an increasing role played by microorganisms in the production of the antibiotics and other drugs for the treatment of some serious diseases. With less than 1% of the microbial world currently known, advances in procedures for microbial cultivation and the extraction of nucleic acids from environmental samples from soil and marine habitats, and from symbiotic and endophytic microbes associated with terrestrial and marine macro-organisms, will provide access to a vast untapped reservoir of genetic and metabolic diversity. By use of combinatorial chemical and biosynthetic technology, novel natural product leads will be optimized on the basis of their biological activities to yield effective chemotherapeutic and other bioactive agents.