Abstract

Olefin metathesis has rapidly established itself as an essential tool in the synthetic chemists armoury. The ease of operation and functional group tolerance that is obtained with the modern generation of catalysts makes the use of metathesis an extremely attractive option when preparing medicinally interesting molecules. This article will outline some of the ways in which chemists from both industry and academia have been utilising and developing metathesis in the search for novel biological probes and drug leads.

Keywords: peptidases, structure activity relationship, Diels-Alder reaction, photodynamic therapy (PDT), Chlorotritylpolystyrene, Valienamine, N-heterocyclic natural products