Learning from nature's bounty: New libraries for drug discovery

Natural products make some of our most potent medicines, among which macrocycles with their large carbon-rich ring systems are one class. Their size and complexity has made it difficult to emulate on Nature's success in the laboratory. By completing a complex molecular synthesis of these compounds attached to a unique identifying DNA strand, Chemists have built a rich collection of natural product-like macrocycles that can be mined for new medicines.