Combinatorial Chemistry - A New Strategy for Drug Synthesis

The very first topic for my blog is Combinatorial Chemistry, one of the most exciting fields of evolving chemistry today.

Combinatorial chemistry, a technology for creating molecules en-masse and testing them rapidly for desirable properties has become one of the important new methodologies developed by researchers in the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the time and costs associated with producing effective and competitive new drugs.

It is an innovative method of synthesizing many different substances quickly and at the same time. Combinatorial chemistry contrasts with the time-consuming and labour intensive methods of traditional chemistry where compounds are synthesized individually, one at a time. While it is used by organic chemists who are seeking new drugs, chemists are also now applying combinatorial chemistry to other fields such as semiconductors, super conductors, catalysts and polymers.

It is used to synthesize large number of chemical compounds by combining sets of building blocks. Each newly synthesized compound's composition is slightly different from the previous one. A traditional chemist can synthesize 100-200 compounds in a year whereas a combinatorial robotic system can produce in a year, thousands or millions of compounds which can be tested for potential drug candidates in a high-throughput screening process.

By accelerating the process of chemical synthesis, this method is having a profound effect on all branches of chemistry, especially on drug discovery. Through the rapidly evolving technology of combi-chemistry, it is now possible to produce compound libraries to screen for novel bioactivities. This powerful new technology has begun to help pharmaceutical companies to find new drug candidates quickly, save significant money in preclinical development costs and ultimately change their fundamental approach to drug discovery.

The field represents a convergence of chemistry and biology made possible by fundamental advances in miniaturization, robotics and receptor development. Therefore, it is not surprising that it has also captured the attention of every major player in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and agrochemical arena.