The ceramide and sphingoid base backbones of sphingolipids are highly bioactive compounds that offer promise as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents against cancer. The primary goal of this section of our NCDDG proposal is the creation of functional libraries of both naturally-occurring sphingolipids and sphingolipid analogs that can be used in a variety of high throughput screens, as well as in focused structure-function studies for lead optimization. In order to accomplish this, we utilize both solution-phase and solid phase synthesis techniques, many of which have been developed here at Emory over the past decade. As leads are identified, we will also initiate process research studies, the goal of which will be to develop synthetic protocols capable producing the larger quantities of materials required for in vivo evaluation of drug candidates.