Research Key words: Natural products medicinal chemistry Combinatorial synthesis and biosynthesis Structure-based drug design and mode of action Research in our lab is concentrated on the synthesis, assessment, and modification of potential therapeutic leads, especially those derived from natural products. We use chemical synthesis as well as genetic manipulation of the natural biosyntheses to access and modify compounds to study structure-activity relationships (SAR). These efforts involves the integration of basic concepts in organic reaction mechanisms, synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, bioinformatics and computational chemistry.