Combinatorial thinking in chemistry and biology.

Abstract

Therefore, any method that accelerates the discovery of such molecules, and provides an experimental foothold for rigorous computational studies, is worthy of being described as a “Frontier of Science.” The techniques described in this session, termed “combinatorial” chemistry, provide methods for the efficient synthesis and screening of libraries of related compounds with well-defined levels of diversity. These methods can be used either to generate and screen large, unbiased chemical libraries for a novel binding activity, or to create smaller, less diverse libraries of compounds that are all descended from a parental molecule with a previously determined biological activity. Combinatorial experiments are attractive to biochemists because they allow the systematic, rigorous screening of a large number of related compounds, in search of molecules that can be further optimized for specific purposes. As illustrated …