In my undergraduate drug discovery research laboratory, I often experienced situations where integration of two (or more) projects was required. When synthesizing relatively large, pharmaceutically active compounds, they would be occasionally be made in pieces. Each segment of the final molecule had to be made with purity, concentration, and chemical properties in mind to successfully join them later in the synthesis process. In one situation, I was tasked with a six step synthesis and then combining my final product with two other scientists products to make the final active compound. In most cases before this step (including this scenario) we each combined our material on 1/10th scale in a ‘practice’ synthesis step to ensure that the reaction would run smoothly and we would not lose all out hard work if there was an unforeseen error. In this way, only a small amount of product was initially risked and then, when/if successful, the other 9/10ths was put though the same reaction mechanism. In this particular case, the reaction worked so there were no issues. However, if it failed, a different mechanism of combination was researched and the 3 ‘parts’ would have been joined a different way.