Abstract
As molecular explorers, chemists often venture out into “chemical space” to see what strange new discoveries they can make. To assist in these efforts, researchers have devised algorithms that take a prescribed set of elements and number of atoms and work through all the possible combinations leading to stable molecules that are synthetically feasible. Using the GDB-11 database, which constructs molecules containing C, N, O, or F and containing up to 11 framework atoms, a team led by Marcel Mayor of the University of Basel decided to zoom in on polycyclic hydrocarbons lacking three- or four-membered rings. This structural motif is sometimes found in natural products that have potential as drug candidates. Among the 124 molecules that popped up in the database search, only three had no real-world counterparts. One of these compounds, an intricate symmetrical saturated C11H16 molecule, was “particularly appealing and eye catching,” so the researchers decided to
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