Function‐Oriented Natural Product Synthesis
Authors: Chen Kaiqi , Wu Fan , Lei Xiaoguang 
Published: October 2020

Natural products and their derivatives have long been used as medicinal agents, and they still make up a significant fraction of clinically approved drugs. Natural product synthesis provides a rich and unparalleled opportunity to develop new synthetic transformations, conceive novel and general strategies to access complex structures, and study the mechanism of action of bioactive targets. The combination of the tools and principles of chemistry, together with the tools of modern biology, allows us to create complex synthetic and natural molecules, comprising processes with novel biological, chemical and physical properties. This account will illustrate the opportunities that lie at this interface between synthetic organic chemistry and chemical biology by describing a series of examples that we are actively working on in our laboratory at Peking University. We take the inspiration from mother nature to develop new synthetic strategies to achieve the efficient synthesis of complex natural products. In addition, we also conduct chemical biology studies for these bioactive natural products to elucidate their cellular targets and mode of action. Moreover, we further use bioactive natural products to explore new biology and develop novel drug candidates for human diseases, such as cancers and infectious diseases.

What is the most favorite and original chemistry developed in your research group?

By far the most original and ground‐breaking work we have done is the discovery of the first naturally occurring TRUE Diels‐Alderase which shows tremendous synthetic potential in biocatalysis for efficiently making structurally complex and bioactive molecules.

How do you get into this specific field? Could you please share some experiences with our readers?

I have a great passion in synthetic chemistry, and I am always fascinated by making organic molecules that may help us explore new biology and develop medicine for human diseases. Therefore, my research programs are relatively broad, spanning from natural product synthesis, chemical biology, synthetic biology, biocatalysis to drug discovery.

What is the most important personality for scientific research?

In my personal opinion, curiosity, ambition, and dedication are the most important personalities for scientific research. What is your favorite journal(s)?

My favorite journals are: 1) Cell, when you read a Cell paper, you can get a full story of the original discovery and understand the detailed logic on how the research is planned and conducted; 2) Accounts of Chemical Research, this journal provides a short review on how a chemist establishes a specific new research field, very inspiring!

What's your hobbies?

I love many sports, soccer, American football, basketball, etc. I am also good at Seal Cutting, one of the four major traditional Chinese arts.

If you have anything else to tell our readers, please feel free to do so.

I would like to share one advice with the young scientists who just start their independent research career: BE DIFFERENT from your Ph.D. and Postdoc advisors, try to establish your own research direction! It's always easy to quickly get paper published when you take advantage of your advisor's research system, but it's very challenging to establish your own reputation and prove your originality in this way.