Ringing the changes

An increasing problem in cancer chemotherapy is multiple drug resistance. To fight it, medicinal chemists are continually on the lookout for new cytotoxic compounds, and from natural products they have isolated several that each promote the formation of stable bundles of microtubules, and so inhibit cell division. The newest member of this family is eleutherobin, whose isolation was announced in September. Astonishingly, that has already been followed by the compound's total synthesis.