Harvard chemists' breakthrough in synthesis advances a potent anti-cancer agent

Chemists have achieved what a new article calls a 'landmark in drug discovery' with the total synthesis of 11.5g of halichondrin. Known to be a potent anti-cancer agent in mouse studies, and found naturally in sea sponges -- though only ever in minuscule quantities -- the halichondrin class of molecule is so fiendishly complex that it had never been synthesized on a meaningful scale in the lab.