Chapter 11 - Fundamentals of drug design and discovery

Abstract

The term “drug design” really refers to “ligand design” i.e., design of a small molecule that will bind tightly to its target. Rational drug design is also known as “Rational design” involves a systematic procedure for discovering novel medications based on biological target information. It involves the designing of small molecules with comparable shapes and charges to the complex target. Drug discovery is a process by which a drug molecule is identified and partially validated for the treatment of specific disease. Over the last few years, computer aided drug design (CADD) also recognized as in silico screening has become a powerful technique. CADD works with collaboration between structure biologists, biophysicists and computational scientists for discovery of new chemical entities. CADD and bioinformatics tools provide benefits like cost saving, time to market, and in-sight knowledge of drug receptor interactions.