Capturing the Essence of Organic Synthesis: From Bioactive Natural Products to Designed Molecules in Today's Medicine

In this Perspective, I outline my group's research involving the chemical syntheses of medicinally important natural products, exploration of their bioactivity, and the development of new asymmetric carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions. This paper also highlights our approach to molecular design and synthesis of conceptually novel inhibitors against target proteins involved in the pathogenesis of human diseases, including AIDS and Alzheimer's disease.