1. Anti-cancer compounds of clinical value with identified mechanism of action; potent cytotoxic natural products with high selectivity against genetically defined cancer cells

2. Anti-cancer compounds of clinical value with identified mechanism of action; potent cytotoxic natural products with high selectivity against genetically defined cancer cells

3. Anti-cancer compounds of clinical value with identified mechanism of action; potent cytotoxic natural products with high selectivity against genetically defined cancer cells

4. Anti-cancer compounds of clinical value with identified mechanism of action; potent cytotoxic natural products with high selectivity against genetically defined cancer cells

De novo syntheses of complex small molecules, especially natural products, not only provide sufficient quantities of compounds that suffer from problems of purification or abundance, but also endow us the unique ability to accurately modify the targeted chemotypes. Factors of efficiency, modu larity, robustness and scalability are considered and balanced in our synthetic routes, which, if successful, would enable efficient preparation of the targeted small-molecule library and exploration of the associated chemical biology. We are keen on developing novel cascade chemistry by harnessing the reactive intermediates, which often involve the rearrangement of molecular skeletons.