[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.