Abstract: The invention provides a prodrug platform technology for improving the therapeutic value of a variety of parent drug compounds by altering and improving drug characteristics such as aqueous solubility, hydrolytic stability, therapeutic index, toxicity profile, pharmacolcinetics and selectivity while allowing the potential for synthetic elaboration. The prodrug platform is particularly well suited for targeting therapeutic drugs, including anti-tumor drugs and antibiotics, to specific receptors on target cells (e.g., cancer cells and bacteria). The platform is a technology for providing an improved, preactivated form of a therapeutic drug, and for optionally targeting such drug to target cells or biological molecules. The invention is broadly applicable to many different therapeutic drugs, as well as to a variety of diseases and conditions, including a variety of forms of cancer and bacterial infections.