title: Profiling natural product biosynthesis.
abstract: Natural products are a rich source of therapeutics; however, artificially reengineering the biosynthetic pathways that generate these compounds could potentially generate "designer" drugs. Last month in Chemistry & Biology, Burkart and coworkers reported their technique to track and better understand the components of these pathways.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Brenda A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Frankel
authors.forename: Dewey G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: McCafferty
mesh_terms: D001685:Biological Factors / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D018942:Macrolides / Q000378:metabolism*; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010453:Peptide Synthases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001685:Biological Factors; D018942:Macrolides; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D010455:Peptides; D010453:Peptide Synthases