[Just go in the lab and do experiments; things will happen]
Gilvocarcin V (for vinyl) was 5 orders of magnitude more potent than 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP), a model UVA-activated DNA damaging agent used clinically for treatment of psoriasis that we immediately adopted as a positive control and comparator. 8-MOP is a structural analog with an identical coumarin core. Gilvocarcin V is likely the most potent DNA damaging agent ever discovered. I found out later that the chemists thought I was incompetent when I couldn’t find any activity in the samples they provided, and they actually tested it in the old lab without me using the BIA (with positive results), and published it without my knowledge. However, when I discovered that it was light-activated, everyone wanted to be a co-author on our paper. But it was published in Science as Elespuru and Gonda (my technician), 1984.