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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Future Med Chem. 2014 Jun;6(10):1127–1148. doi: 10.4155/fmc.14.71

Figure 1. Various goals of chemical synthesis.

Figure 1

(A) Targeted synthesis: a single structure is desired. Accessed through ‘total’ or ‘semi’-synthesis.

(B) Modular synthesis: a general structure or scaffold is desired. Accessed by assembling easily diversifiable building blocks. Further optimization of structure is guided by functional assay results. (C) Combinatorial chemistry/library synthesis: no well-defined starting or ending structure. Simple building blocks are assembled in large number. Bioassays are used to determine which compounds provide an initial hit and will be explored further.

FG: Functional group.