This presentation is directed toward a general audience, and thus it eschews specialist
details of how and why molecular targets are selected and synthesized. Instead, it
illustrates how curiosity-driven research in synthetic organic chemistry has inspired
solutions to biomedical problems in the fields of degenerative, proliferative and
infectious disease, nucleic acid therapeutics, cardiovascular health, and so on. In
particular, it outlines how research on the synthesis of thiopeptide natural products
enabled the development of new kinase inhibitors, cytotoxic agents, and anti-infective
resources; how synthetic work on mitomycinoids and tetrodotoxin inspired the quantum
leap that launched the field of nucleic acid therapeutics; and how a synthetic organic
culture plays a central role in the development of the medicines of the future.
21/06/2022
21st June 2022, at 10, aula A, CU019