Biology-inspired synthesis of compound libraries

Biologically active small molecules represent the basis for chemical biology applications in which small molecules are used as chemical tools to probe biological processes. In this report, we review two approaches to design and synthesize compound libraries for biological screenings, i.e., diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) and biology-oriented synthesis (BIOS). Received 23 October 2007; received after revision 26 November 2007; accepted 28 November 2007