Finding new antibiotics is difficult. Synthesising those new antibiotics can be just as hard, and sometimes is takes a long time to find a good approach. And sometimes the most important step in synthesis optimisation is characterising your side-products.
How do synthetic chemists use fundamental, yet robust reactions to chemicals stitch together smaller fragments large and complex natural products? The Porco’s Lab latest work might give you a taste of what it’s like to exercise the art of total synthesis with a hint of inspiration from biology.