Introduction 

Natural products continue to underpin the developments of new medicines and agrochemicals. Their biosynthesis and role in the environment are increasingly well understood at ecological, chemical, biochemical, and genetic levels and their discovery and exploitation remain key objectives of academics and companies. 

Following the 2006 and 2010 editions of the RSC's Directing Biosynthesis conference, the subject area continues to mature, and the area of understanding and directing biosynthesis remains highly topical. 

Significant opportunities exist for engineering biosynthetic pathways in bacteria, fungi and plants for the directed biosynthesis of new natural products with new and beneficial properties. 

The conference featured contributions from the most active groups in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan working in this rapidly developing area.

Themes

Topics of discussion included:

• Polyketides
  
• Non-ribosomal and ribosomal peptides
  
• Terpenes and alkaloids
  
• Synthetic biology approaches to engineering new pathways and natural products                          

Scientific Committee

Russell Cox, University of Bristol, UK  (Chair)
Greg Challis, University of Warwick, UK
Jason Micklefield, University of Manchester, UK
Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre, UK
Barrie Wilkinson, Biotica, UK

Sponsor

We would like to thank the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for their generous support at Directing Biosynthesis III.

Co-sponsorship support

We are grateful for the support of the RSC Bio-Organic Group. 

We would also like to thank the Biochemical Society for their co-sponsorship support of Directing Biosynthesis III.