Peter G. Schultz
Aug 18, 2009
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Influential Citations
75
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Journal
Chemistry International
Abstract
The feature that perhaps most distinguishes chemistry from the rest of the sciences is the ability of chemists to control the structure of matter at the molecular level. Unfortunately, we are not nearly as adept at the synthesis of molecules with defined functions as we are at the synthesis of molecules with defined structures. As the focus of chemistry increasingly shifts from structure to function, chemists will need to develop better strategies to efficiently generate molecules, and systems of molecules, with desired physical, chemical, or biological properties in order to meet the biomedical, energy, and environmental needs of the future. Indeed this challenge represents one of the great opportunities for synthesis in the coming years. One direction we can turn for help is Mother Nature: after all, living organisms carry out a remarkable array of complex functions using natural molecules and molecular assemblies. With this theme in mind, the focus of our work has been to exploit nature itself, i.e., use the synthetic strategies, molecules, and biosynthetic machinery of living organisms, together with more traditional chemical approaches, to generate molecules with properties that might be difficult to realize by chemical strategies alone.