Abstract
Structurally complex polyketide natural products, isolated from a variety of marine and terrestrial sources, continue to provide a valuable source of rewarding targets for the synthetic chemist to tackle. In this account, we provide an overview of the total synthesis of several structurally fascinating polyketides with promising anticancer activity completed in our group based on our versatile asymmetric aldol methodology—spirastrellolide A methyl ester, leiodermatolide, rhizopodin and chivosazole F—and highlight the unanticipated challenges and discoveries encountered.
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Acknowledgements
The work summarized in this review was carried out by generations of highly able students and postdocs at Cambridge, whose dedication, hard work and contributions are gratefully acknowledged. We thank the Woolf Fisher Trust (scholarship to NYSL) for support, Dr Alison Findlay for helpful discussions and a thorough review of the manuscript and the EPSRC UK National Mass Spectrometry Facility at Swansea University.
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Paterson, I., Lam, N. Challenges and discoveries in the total synthesis of complex polyketide natural products. J Antibiot 71, 215–233 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/ja.2017.111
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ja.2017.111
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