Abstract

Natural products (NPs) and their derivatives have historically been rich source of therapeutic agents. They offer huge chemical/structural diversity which could be invaluable in probing complex biological interactions. Our ongoing work focuses on structural modification of known NPs and explore their potential as chemical probes for protein-protein interaction. Specifically, our studies of azapodophyllotoxins and chalcones have resulted in compounds that are highly effective in modulating PPIs implicated as cause of resistance to current chemotherapy.  These data contribute to our understanding of human biology, and hopefully, improve our ability to develop effective drugs.