The Psymberin Story—Biological Properties and Approaches towards Total and Analogue Syntheses

Psymberin is a marine natural product which has attracted a great deal of interest since its isolation: While the highly cytotoxic compound was detected early on as an ingredient in a marine sponge, it took over a decade and 600 additional samples for the structure to eventually be assigned. In the last eight years fascinating synthetic and biosynthetic investigations have led to a more detailed understanding as well as a new starting point for structure–activity studies towards new antitumor compounds. The Review gives an in‐depth insight into the progress in the field of the marine polyketide psymberin and demonstrates how organic synthesis is influencing neighboring scientific subjects.