As antibiotics fall to bacterial resistance one by one, it is essential that medicinal chemists keep ahead of the game by finding compounds with new modes of attack. Recently a new antibiotic, platensimycin has been found to act potently through a novel mechanism. Now, US chemists have devised a total synthesis for this unique compound and tracked their progress using mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy.
You can read the full story on how Scripps chemist KC Nicolaou and his colleagues have devised a total synthesis of this molecule that could be used as the starting point for manufacturing a new class of antibiotics.
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