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In t
his Perspective, t
he value of small molecule natural products (SMNPs) in t
he discovery of activebiological agents is discussed. T
he usefulness of t
he natural products-based met
hod of potential p
harmadiscovery is muc
h augmented by t
he capacities of c
hemical synt
hesis. T
he great advances in synt
heticmet
hodology allow for major editing of t
he natural product in t
he
hopes of optimizing potency andt
herapeutic index. As a consequence of t
he enormous increase in t
he power of multistep c
hemical synt
hesis,one can now approac
h structures of previously impractical complexity. In constructing a plan for a multistepsynt
hesis, two complementary t
houg
ht styles are often encountered. One is t
he traditional and extremelypowerful concept of prioritized strategic bond disconnections. T
he ot
her, w
hic
h we term "patternrecognition," involves t
he identification of moieties wit
hin t
he target, w
hic
h are associated wit
h reliablec
hemistry, and can serve to facilitate progress to t
he target. Recognition of suc
h targets may requiresubstantial recasting of t
he target structure to connect it to well-establis
hed types of transformations.Some of our older ventures, w
here ideas about pattern recognition were first being fas
hioned and usedproductively, are revisited. In addition, we provide snaps
hots of recently ac
hieved total synt
heses ofSMNPs of novel biological potential. T
hese vignettes serve to
harmonize insig
hts occasioned by patternrecognition, in concert wit
h transformations enabled by t
he enormous growt
h in t
he power of synt
hesis.
