Learning from nature`s bounty: New libraries for drug discovery
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

Natural products, or their close derivatives, make some of our most potent medicines, among which macrocycles with their large carbon-rich ring systems are one class. The size and complexity of macrocycles has made it difficult to emulate and build on nature`s success in the laboratory. By completing a complex molecular synthesis of these compounds attached to a unique identifying DNA strand, the Chemists of the University of Basel have built a rich collection of natural product-like macrocycles that can be mined for new medicines as the researchers report in the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie.