Geology, life and habitability

The examination of contemporary systems and the rock record has demonstrated that the biosphere and geosphere are intimately linked, presumably since life's origin. The geosphere provides trace and essential nutrients for life, sources of reduced compounds and electron acceptors, that is, the energy for life to occur, and habitats ranging from ‘simple’ surfaces to grow on to unique endolithic environments formed at least in part by the microorganisms themselves. The hydrosphere is perhaps more important than the lithosphere, because it provides the solvent necessary for biogeochemical reactions and life to occur. The major question about how life originated cannot be readily answered; however, the question of habitability is relatively easy. Using Earth as our role model, there are several candidate extrasolar bodies within our solar system, for example, Mars and Europa, that could support life

Capturing biological activity in natural product fragments by chemical synthesis

Natural products have had an immense influence on science and have directly led to the introduction of many drugs. Organic chemistry, and its unique ability to tailor natural products through synthesis, provides an extraordinary approach to unlock the full potential of natural products. In this Review, an approach based on natural product derived fragments is presented that can successfully address some of the current challenges in drug discovery. These fragments often display significantly reduced molecular weights, reduced structural complexity, a reduced number of synthetic steps, while retaining or even improving key biological parameters such as potency or selectivity. Examples from various stages of the drug development process up to the clinic are presented. In addition, this process can be leveraged by recent developments such as genome mining, antibody–drug conjugates, and computational approaches. All these concepts have the potential to identify the next generation of drug candidates inspired by natural products