Living organisms produce a diverse suite of natural products which can be harnessed for medicinal and therapeutic purposes. Among these products, ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides, or RiPPs, have garnered increasing attention.

Many of the drugs we utilize in modern medicine are naturally produced by microbes. Penicillin, an antibiotic derived from certain molds, is one of the most notable natural products due to its recognition as one of the biggest advances in medicine and human health. As DNA sequencing has become cheaper and faster, scientists now have access to hundreds of thousands of microbial genomes and the natural products they produce.